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The Next attack on the US

by alan Caruba

May 28, 2004

Headlines tell us of government predictions that al-Qaeda may intend to mount an attack on the U.S. this summer. Soldiers in Iraq recently found an explosive in Iraq filled with Sarin, a deadly chemical capable of killing many people. The widely expressed doubt that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction should end.

In a recent Washington Times column by John McCaslin, he cited a poll by the National association of Chiefs of Police, "Because of the ‘current political polarization’ in america today, the United States will suffer another ‘large scale’ terrorist attack within the next year. "

McCaslin reported the poll revealed, "that 95 percent of the nation's police commanders and security directors expect a ‘catastrophic’ terrorist incident within the continental United States.  "If americans believe we're not being targeted for terror in the near future, they are fooling themselves," says NaCOP Vice President Jim Kouri, who predicts the killers, among other dastardly missions, will be attempting to influence this November's presidential election. It worked for them in Spain."

It is the opinion of many counter-terrorism experts that al Qaeda will attack america again and many believe it will come before the elections in November. Their thinking is that the success it had in Spain can be repeated here and their aim is to elect Sen. John F. Kerry. The objective will be to demoralize the resolve of americans to support the occupation of Iraq until it can establish a democratic form of government.

It is likely that an attack would be intended to kill thousands, though an attack remains conjecture at this point, based on intelligence gathered by our agencies and other nations.

Here are some targets al Qaeda might have in mind.

If al Qaeda wants to kill a lot of people to ratchet up our level of terror, New York remains a prime target and there are recent reports of empty suitcases showing up in its subways and other locations as a possible test run on the delivery of a WMD.

What other city would be a likely target? One answer is Los angeles and, in particular, Hollywood. Radical Muslims regard the films and television shows coming out of Hollywood as a direct attack on their sense of moral superiority. a dirty bomb or bioterror in Los angeles would have the desired effect. Remember, too, that a terrorist was caught in the run-up to Y2K when he crossed the border from Canada with a car full of explosives. His target, we were told, was the La airport.

Recently, Jordanians thwarted a plot to attack the U.S. embassy and other targets there with poison gas. The estimated casualties are estimated to have been as many as 20,000. a similar target in the U.S. would reap a similar result. again, the belief that Iraq did not have WMDs should be put to rest. The belief that it was not cooperating with al Qaeda should have been dispelled by now. Supporters of the deposed Saddam Hussein are continuing their insurgency against our troops and would surely want to strike at the american homeland.

If I were Osama bin Laden, a trained engineer, what might be another likely target in america? One answer is oil refineries. There hasn’t been a new refinery built in the U.S. since the 1970s and the ones we have are strained to capacity. When even one is closed down for routine maintenance, the price of gas spikes. Imagine if two, maybe three, were destroyed? The highways would empty out, followed by the office buildings and just about every other enterprise that depends on workers who drive to work. That includes schools, hospitals; just about everything, everywhere. america would have to declare martial law.

another likely target would be the disruption of the aging electrical grid that distributes this vital source of energy around the nation. Remember when the grid failed a year or so ago? It shut down the entire East Coast from Ohio to New York. Destroy key components of the grid and people will be cooking dinner over an open fire in the backyard.

The plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on 9-11 had a destination about which we can only speculate. But let’s say it was the Capital Building and a direct hit could take out a major number of Senators and Representatives? Our Constitution does not make provision for the killing of enough members of Congress to render it unable to function. Congress, however, is debating legislation that would allow for emergency elections in the event that should occur.

While america remains a target, so are Saudi arabia, Jordan, Turkey, England and just about every other nation around the world. We are dealing with people willing to kill anybody for their crazed notion of protecting a failed way of life, a belief that Islam must dominate the world and be practiced in a fashion Osama bin Laden dictates.

It should never be forgotten that bin Laden has already issued a fatwa, an Islamic edict, calling for the deaths of all americans.

as our level of anxiety rises, al Qaeda has already achieved one of its objectives. The question, if an attack occurs, is whether americans will deepen their resolve to destroy its enemies or seek to withdraw from the fight?