Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Target: America


Plan to Attack U.S. Landmarks -Benjamin Weiser

A Pakistani neuroscientist was carrying handwritten notes when she was detained in Afghanistan that referred to a "mass casualty attack" and listed landmarks like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, according to a federal indictment.

The scientist, Aafia Siddiqui, 36, is being held on charges...
(New York Times)

4 comments:

LHwrites said...

I have no doubt things like this are going on. However, with the record of our country, arresting people on suspicion, sending them to other countries for torturous interrogations or holding them indefinitely, it is hard to know when we hear about these things in nations with shaky human rights records themselves, whether everything we are hearing is accurate.

Bruce said...

It would make sense that the jihadist would go after Lady Liberty. After the symbolism of hitting the World Trade Center and Pentagon, it's a logical target.

Luckily, several Western countries have successfully thwarted attacks before they could be carried out. Very good trend.

LHwrites said...

Yes, good trend, if true. And again, I do not dispute that things like this are probably going on, or that the Statue would be a target. What makes all of this wonderful anti-terrorism intrigue so believable though? Our government lied about WMD, lied, even to Colin Powell about what was going on in Africa, outed Valerie Plame, etc.,etc. We hold people indefinitely in Gitmo without evidence or due process, and Palin even jokes about it during her (very good) RNC speech, as if wanting humans to have rights is a joke---if they're Muslims. I am just not convinced that when we hear that a plan was thwarted in Pakistan, that something wonderful necessarily really went down! Believing this government is a dangerous thing. It can give you the false sense of security that led to 911 (after Bush announced during the 2000 election that he would be the anti-terrorism President) to his thwarting AL-Qaeda in Iraq, where it WASN'T---of course, until it WAS---Thanks to Bush/Cheney. I don't like to sound like a 60's paranoid conspiracy theorist, except since all the things I have mentioned were discovered to be true, it would be foolhardy to just believe everything we hear now, even when it is stuff we want to hear.

LHwrites said...

I have a correction though. I actually think it was Giuliani that made a joke out of the democrats demanding human rights and the rule of law for our prisoners in Gitmo. Apparently when we set us our great nation and decided that everyone was innocent until proven guilty we only meant Americans, or maybe we just did not mean Muslims. You would have to poll them at the RNC to knw for sure.