+joc Posted August 4, 2004 #26 Share Posted August 4, 2004 PD: Some can be offended, but has argentine citizen, i have a natural hate towerds that three institutions, and for the local politicians how cooperate whit that institutions. Mekorig, While there are also institutions that I dislike, it is always important to keep in mind that these 'institutions' are, for the most part, large buildings holding thousands of innocent people who are just trying to make a living and put some decent food on the table for their children and a roof over their heads. Bombing the buildings will not destroy the institutions...it will just kill thousands of innocent people....which is the goal of the terrorists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC09 Posted August 4, 2004 Author #27 Share Posted August 4, 2004 New Qaeda Activity Is Said to Be Major Factor in Alert Aug. 3 - Senior government officials said Tuesday that new intelligence pointing to a current threat of a terrorist attack on financial targets in New York and possibly in Washington - not just information about surveillance on specific buildings over the years - was a major factor in the decision over the weekend to raise the terrorism alert level. The officials said the separate stream of intelligence, which they had not previously disclosed, reached the White House only late last week and was part of a flow that the officials said had prompted them to act urgently in the last few days. The officials disclosed the information a day after the Bush administration acknowledged for the first time that much of the surveillance activity cited last weekend by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to justify the latest, specific warnings had been at least three years old. At the same time, the White House offered a vigorous defense of its decision to heighten the alert in Manhattan, Newark and Washington, with officials saying there was still good reason for alarm. "I think it's wrong and plain irresponsible to suggest that it was based on old information,'' Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said of the heightened warning as President Bush traveled to Dallas on a campaign swing. In an appearance in New York, Mr. Ridge responded forcefully to a question about whether election-year politics had played a part in determining how and when the intelligence was released. "We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security,'' Mr. Ridge said. He added: "The detail, the sophistication, the thoroughness of this information, if you had access to it, you'd say we did the right thing. Government should let the public know about situations like this. It's not about politics. It's about confidence in government telling you when they get the information.'' In addition to the surveillance activity, detailed in reports uncovered late last week from computer disks in Pakistan, a senior intelligence official said that "very current and recent activity on the part of Al Qaeda'' has left little doubt that "Al Qaeda is moving toward the execution stage of attacks here in the homeland.'' The language used by senior administration officials on Tuesday in warning of a possible attack was at least as strong as that Mr. Ridge used in announcing the alert on Sunday, and much stronger than the language used on Monday, when the officials acknowledged that the reconnaissance reports dated back to the period surrounding the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Among other things, one official disclosed on Tuesday that one intelligence report had pointed to a possible attack "in August or September.'' That shifting tone may prove frustrating to the public, providing little guidance for assessing the gravity of threat information whose details remain shrouded in intelligence reports not available to anyone outside the highest ranks of the government. A senior White House official who mentioned the new stream of intelligence in an interview refused to say anything more about its source or content. The official said it had not been publicly disclosed out of concern that such a step could compromise intelligence and law enforcement operations in the United States and around the world. Officials would not describe those operations but said they were meant to disrupt a possible plot. Full Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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