Untitled Document
It didn’t take long for the story to fall completely apart, not
that you would know it reading or especially watching the corporate media.
“One former intelligence field officer says, and two other CIA officials
confirm, that the alleged plot by Muslim extremists to bomb the Holland Tunnel
in New York City was nothing more than chatter by unaffiliated individuals with
no financing or training in an open forum already monitored extensively by the
United States Government,” ace reporter Larisa
Alexandrovna writes for Raw Story. ( see story below)
“The so-called New York tunnel plot was a result of discussions held
on an open Jihadi web site,” Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, told
Alexandrovna.
According to other intelligence officials cited by Alexandrovna, the entire
affair, consisting of nothing more than chat room chatter, “seems to have
been exposed for political gain,” a “direct challenge to a New York
Times report this week of the disbandment of Alec Station, the CIA unit responsible
for tracking Osama bin Laden since before the September 11, 2001 attacks.”
In other words, it was simply another day in Bushzarro world, another
cycle of neocon spawned fake terrorism propaganda. “The alleged
bomb plot, sources suggest, may have been to alleviate Bush administration concerns
that the Alec Station story would make them appear to be ‘weak on terror.’”
Or put another way, the neocons are unable to “smoke out” Osama
bin Laden because the CIA asset died in a village near Kandahar in December,
2001, according to the Egyptian newspaper al-Wafd.
However embarrassing the closure of the Bin Laden unit was for the neocons,
as reported by the New York Times, there is another reason the Bush neocons,
the Justice Department, and the FBI are making up preposterous stories—it
stokes the flames of irrational fear and loathing of terrorism on the home front.
Of course, Larisa Alexandrovna’s revelation has not put a damper on the
corporate media. As usual, since the very idea of blowing up the Holland Tunnel
and flooding lower Manhattan is nothing short of absurd, a bit of story tweaking
was in order.
“Initial reports said that the terrorists wanted to attack the Holland
Tunnel, a major thoroughfare for cars entering Manhattan. But officials said
the group had specifically mentioned only the PATH train tunnels that commuters
travel through on their way to New York and New Jersey,” reports Pat Milton,
a stenographer at the Associated
Press.
FBI Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon said the supposed plot “involved
martyrdom and explosives,” never mind the alleged perpetrators were nowhere
near Manhattan or New Jersey (one was purportedly in Canada, a nice touch, as
Ottawa recently served as the stage for a “homegrown” terrorist
plot, that is to say the RCMP entrapped a handful of patsies).
Naturally, as today is the first anniversary of the false flag operation
in London, the idea of bombing an underground train is rather effective.
“Details of the plot—first reported by the Daily News—emerged
on the one-year anniversary of the attacks on the London transportation system
that killed 52 people. Officials said the timing of Friday’s report in
relation to the anniversary was coincidental,” the Associated Press continues.
Sure it was.
“Officials cited the arrest of the Lebanese suspect—described as
the scheme’s mastermind—as a significant break in the investigation.
A Lebanese official said the Beirut man confessed to plotting to attack New
York City tunnels later this year, and that he was acting on Osama bin Laden’s
orders.”
Funny what people will say under the duress of torture.
_________________________________
Sources say no serious plot for NYC, just hate chatter
Larisa Alexandrovna
The
Raw Story
One former intelligence field officer says, and two other CIA officials confirm,
that the alleged plot by Muslim extremists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in New
York City was nothing more than chatter by unaffiliated individuals with no
financing or training in an open forum already monitored extensively by the
United States Government, RAW STORY has learned.
“The so-called New York tunnel plot was a result of discussions held
on an open Jihadi web site,” said Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer
and contributor to American Conservative magazine, in a late Friday afternoon
conversation. Although Giraldi acknowledges that the persons involved –
“three of whom have already been arrested in Lebanon and elsewhere - are
indeed extremists," their online chatter is considerably overblown by allegations
of an actual plot.
“They are not professionally trained terrorists, however, and had no
resources with which to carry out the operation they discussed," Giraldi
added. "Despite press reports that they had asked Abu Musab Zarqawi for
assistance, there is no information to confirm that. It is known that the members
discussed the possibility of approaching Zarqawi but none of them knew him or
had any access to him.”
Two other intelligence officials with experience in the field on extremist
operations concurred--and expressed concern that what could have been an operation
to eventually track known extremists (should they eventually make actual contact
with funds and training,) seems to have been exposed for political gain.
Some see this latest “ploy” as a direct challenge to a New York
Times report earlier this week of the disbandment of Alec Station, the CIA unit
responsible for tracking Osama bin Laden since before the September 11, 2001
attacks. Moreover, the article contends that officials say the unit was “disbanded
late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist
Center.”
Some members of Congress have said that they were not informed of the unit’s
closure and expressed concern.
In response to reports that the unit was disbanded, Senator John Kerry (D-MA),
who ran against President Bush in the 2004 election, responded earlier this
week with a demand for the immediate reinstatement of the unit.
“I fully support efforts to adapt our response to the evolving nature
of the threat," wrote Kerry in a letter to John Negroponte, Director of
National Intelligence Office of the Director of National, "but this is
not a compelling rationale for curtailing efforts to bring this mass murderer
to justice."
The alleged bomb plot, sources suggest, may have been to alleviate Bush administration
concerns that the Alec Station story would make them appear to be "weak
on terror." It is not clear this early on, however, how much of a real
and immediate threat the bomb plot may have been.
Director of Homeland Security Michael Chertof seemed unconcerned earlier today,
when the news first broke. Chertoff said at a press conference Friday, "It
was never a concern that this would actually be executed… We were, as
I say, all over this."
The FBI, however, contends that the threat was very much real. "This is
a plot that involved martyrdom and explosives," targeting the "tubes
that connect Jersey and lower Manhattan," Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon
told the Associated Press today.
Special Agent Rich Kolko, a spokesperson for the FBI, told RAW STORY in a late
Friday phone call that, “Mr. Mershon clearly stated the position of the
FBI in this case.”
“In sum, the plot, if that is what we would call it, was not well conceived,
and there was no possibility of flooding Wall Street," Giraldi added. "There
was no connection to a cell in the US. Finally, professional terrorists generally
do not discuss targeting on open channels. As it was being monitored from the
beginning of the open discussion, there was little chance anything concrete
would have developed."
__________________________________
Read from Looking Glass News
Chat
Room Terrorists and the Holland Tunnel