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| Re: Al Qaeda now incapable of 9/11-scale attack: U.S. officials (936795) | |||
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Re: Al Qaeda now incapable of 9/11-scale attack: U.S. officials |
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Posted by JayZeeBMT on Sat Apr 28 19:15:18 2012, in response to Al Qaeda now incapable of 9/11-scale attack: U.S. officials, posted by SelkirkTMO on Sat Apr 28 07:24:40 2012. Big operations like 9/11, intended to be every bit as spectacular and horrifying as they are, also require lots of money, time, and training, things AQ no longer enjoys in sufficient quantities. A BIG part of this change was, as you correctly noted, the raid against OBL by President Obama last year.The original Planes Operation, as I taught it in the EMS Academy years ago, called for ten hijackings--five on the East Coast, five on the West Coast--in a massive attack that would have shut down the government (insofar as it would have taken the COG system to get up and running--two of the original intended targets were the WH AND Capitol). The plan was scaled down because it was too complex, and would have needed too many people spread out over too much real estate--but had they stuck with it, we'd STILL be picking pieces of bone out of too many places around the country. As it was, the 9/11 attacks took OBL and AQ a full eight years to plan, devise, train, finance, and ultimately carry out. Mind you, this is before dedicated agencies like DHS, plus the agencies that have always been hunting terrorists, like the FBI and the CIA. What I think people fail to understand is just how difficult big terrorist operations are to carry out. That's why you don't see them happening every week. Even the most recent attempts here in the US have all involved just one or two operatives, trying to blow up car bombs, or ignite their underwear on airplanes, or set off satchel charges in the subways. All hideously lethal--no question about it--but nothing on the scale of what we went through on 9/11. |
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