The Real Target? (Was London not US target 2004 elections?)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6514619/site/newsweek/

The latest analysis of evidence that led to last summer’s Code Orange alert suggests that Al Qaeda operatives were plotting a “big bomb” attack against a major landmark in Britain—but had no active plans for strikes in the United States, U.S. intelligence sources tell NEWSWEEK.

The reassessment of Al Qaeda plans is the latest indication that much of the Bush administration’s repeatedly voiced concerns about a pre-election attack inside the United States was based in part on an early misreading of crucial intelligence seized months ago in Pakistan.

The new view is that there was indeed an active Al Qaeda plot underway earlier this year—one that involved coded communications between high-level operatives in Pakistan and a British cell headed by a longtime associate of September 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

The plot was aimed at setting off a large bomb at a prestigious economic or political target inside the United Kingdom—in effect to make a political statement against the British government. Among the targets considered in detail by the plotters, sources say, was London’s Heathrow Airport, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.

<snip>

According to a U.S. government official, fears of terror attacks have prompted FBI agents based in the U.S. Embassy in London to avoid traveling on London's popular underground railway (or tube) system, which is used daily by millions of commuters.

Remember Ashcroft not traveling on airline planes from July 2001 on?

the fascists can't figure out if it would hurt or help Blair considering the way he's played this whole thing out.

into voting for *. The Fuckers.

In fact, I remember reading on another site (of somewhat dubious authenticity) that Al Queda had ordered a 'stand down' of any US-based attacks until after the election. He wanted to make sure Bush was elected, apparently.

"Shortly before the election, administration officials quietly acknowledged that at least one informant who last winter had provided lurid intelligence about a possible pre-election attack in the U.S. had apparently fabricated his allegations. Yet given the importance that waging the war on terror had assumed during the presidential campaign, administration officials apparently were reluctant to announce a lowering of the Orange-alert threat until after the election. "They would have been a laughing stock if they lowered it before the election," says Beers..."

It worked and we are stuck with * for 4 more years. :cry:

.....i haven't seen a hint of this here.

And who says BinLaden wanted Bush to win ? That's not what the man himself said.

around that time?

Salon's picked up the story, and offers this:

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html

The report doesn't offer a whole lot more on the issue -- but toward the end there is one rather ominous paragraph about continuing worry of an attack in the British capitol.

"Some U.S. law-enforcement officers based in London, Newsweek has learned, have become extremely concerned about evidence regarding possible active Al Qaeda plots to attack targets in Britain. According to a U.S. government official, fears of terror attacks have prompted FBI agents based in the U.S. Embassy in London to avoid traveling on London's popular underground railway (or tube) system, which is used daily by millions of commuters. While embassy-based officers of the U.S. Secret Service, Immigration and Customs bureaus and the CIA still are believed to use the underground to go about their business, FBI agents have been known to turn up late to crosstown meetings because they insist on using taxis in London's traffic-choked business center."