Be afraid: Report says Al-Qaeda still aims to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S.

[Karmadillo]

Our only hope is to increase the Defense budget. You still have your duct tape, don't you? And don't forget, no matter what: duck & cover. Loose lips sink ships. Support our leaders in this time of danger. And don't take off your shoes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/25/AR2010012502598.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Report says Al-Qaeda still aims to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S.

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 26, 2010

When al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called off a planned chemical attack on New York's subway system in 2003, he offered a chilling explanation: The plot to unleash poison gas on New Yorkers was being dropped for "something better," Zawahiri said in a message intercepted by U.S. eavesdroppers.

The meaning of Zawahiri's cryptic threat remains unclear more than six years later, but a new report warns that al-Qaeda has not abandoned its goal of attacking the United States with a chemical, biological or even nuclear weapon.

The report, by a former senior CIA official who led the agency's hunt for weapons of mass destruction, portrays al-Qaeda's leaders as determined and patient, willing to wait for years to acquire the kind of weapons that could inflict widespread casualties.

The former official, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, draws on his knowledge of classified case files to argue that al-Qaeda has been far more sophisticated in its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction than is commonly believed, pursuing parallel paths to acquiring weapons and forging alliances with groups that can offer resources and expertise.

"If Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants had been interested in . . . small-scale attacks, there is little doubt they could have done so now," Mowatt-Larssen writes in a report released Monday by the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

more...

[ibegurpard]

1. Yeah, and the Yellowstone caldera could blow tomorrow

and I have no control over either.
I wish everyone would realize that and stop letting fear of things they can't control dominate their thinking

[DCBob]

10. Actually, there are ways to reduce the likelihood of terrorist attacks..

on the other hand we cannot stop earthquakes... AFAIK.

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. Damned terra-ist volcanoes with their tectonic tactics!!! *shakes fist*

[Bolo Boffin]

2. The Madrid bombings, I guess

The sarin attack on Japanese subways in 1995 shows the real problems with bio or chemical attacks on subway systems.

[Mari333]

3. fiddlesticks. they just want to justify this

a lot of people make a lot of money off this racket.

[FiveGoodMen]

6. Yup!

[Luciferous]

7. Yep, so they can keep funneling money to all of their cronies.

[ShortnFiery]

4. Gee, which nation manufactures and USES more Weapons of Mass Destruction than all other

countries - "insurgent units?"

<Jeopardy theme>

[Luciferous]

5. Does anyone actually believe in this stuff anymore?

[rwenos]

8. But the Threat is Real

The real question is how to get about confronting the threat, isn't it? Can we honestly say there is no threat, or (like some posting hereunder) that the threat is not to be taken seriously?

It strikes me that neither the Bush administration's horseshit "Threat Level" color system, nor the apparent ridicule present here, are appropriate. That is NOT to say we should spend all that loot on the WOT, or whatever we are calling it nowadays. It IS to say that we should deploy our defense dollars intelligently.

What a novel idea. Intelligent prioritizing of defense vis-a-vis domestic spending.

I can dream, can't I?

[Echo In Light]

9. Another false flag coming to a town near you.

[cutlassmama]

13. been waiting for it. anytime now

[Catshrink]

12. I thought this crap would have ended once * left office.

[FiveGoodMen]

15. * never left office

The same people are running things now as in '08.

[vincna]

14. After reading many of the responses to this OP

I can't help but think of Alfred E. Newman