Inside the plot to devastate New York
By Paul Cruickshank, CNN Terrorism Analyst
Editor’s note: On Tuesday an American of Bosnian descent became the third man to be convicted of a suicide bombing plot against the New York subway. This account draws on court testimony and documents as well as interviews with U.S. counter-terrorism and intelligence officials.
The e-mail was sent from somewhere in Pakistan at 7:14 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on September 6, 2009. It was instantly logged by the massive data-gathering computers of the U.S. National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland, and at GCHQ, the UK's signals intelligence agency.
The sender was someone known to U.S. and UK security services as "Ahmad," who'd been on the radar of British intelligence since a suspected al Qaeda cell had been uncovered in Manchester that year, according to senior U.S. counterterrorism officials.
But the recipient was previously unknown, with the address njbzaz@yahoo.com. Whoever it was lived in the Denver area. Alarm bells rang across the U.S. intelligence establishment. Who in Colorado was in touch with a man suspected as a handler for al Qaeda?
Within two hours, njbzaz replied, "Listen I need a amount of the one mixing of (flour and ghee oil) and I do not khow the amount."
Minutes later, he sent a follow-up: "Plez reply to what I asked u right away. the marriage is ready flour and oil."
U.S. authorities quickly established that the Denver-based e-mailer was Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghan resident alien. He had moved to the Denver area from New York in January 2009 and taken a job as an airport shuttle van driver.
He appeared to be asking for clarification on the quantities of chemicals needed to make a bomb. Flour had frequently been part of the mixture in al Qaeda bombs in the West.
But U.S. intelligence agencies had no idea what Zazi was planning or whether he had co-conspirators. The FBI decided to track his movements and was soon trying to keep up with him.
Zazi left Denver in a rented Chevy Impala early September 9. The FBI was on his tail and asked a highway patrol officer to find a pretext to stop him - and find out where he was going.
He told the patrol officer that he was driving to New York for a business meeting. He seemed nervous, the officer recalled, but was allowed to go after getting a written warning for speeding.
As Zazi drove cross-country at speeds exceeding 100 miles an hour, U.S. national security officials were in a state of high anxiety. "They were s**ting bricks," one source said. The anniversary of 9/11 was only days away, and President Barack Obama and other world leaders were soon set to travel to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly.
At 3:40 p.m. September 10, Zazi was approaching the George Washington Bridge into New York. The FBI instructed Port Authority police to set up a roadblock and include his car in a seemingly random stop and search operation. They brought in a canine to sniff around the vehicle but did not open the trunk. The dog detected nothing, and Zazi was allowed to continue into the city.
But in the trunk, hidden among clothes in a suitcase, was a jar in a plastic bag containing a powerful detonating explosive.
The path to terror
Three years earlier, Zazi had been working as a coffee vendor near Wall Street. Customers described him as cheerful. But he was gradually beginning to perceive the war in Afghanistan as hostile to Islam. And by 2008, he wanted to play a part in what he saw as the inevitable victory of the Taliban.
He was not alone. In recent court testimony, Zazi said that he and two others - Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay - swore an oath to join the Taliban outside a mosque in Queens. Ahmedzay said a Taliban group was operating near his family home in Afghanistan. Zazi would finance their trip, and buy computer equipment to give to the mujahedeen, by running up $50,000 in credit card loans.
In late August 2008, the trio traveled from New York to Pakistan. Days later, Medunjanin and Ahmedzay tried to cross the Afghan border but were turned back by Pakistani police. The trio then began searching for contacts in the city of Peshawar who could connect them to a jihadist group. An imam introduced them to a Pakistani man described by Zazi as in his mid-20s. He was the Ahmad of the e-mails.
Ahmad drove the three young men up into Pakistan's tribal territories but told them the group they would meet might want to send them back to America.
"We took it as a joke," Zazi said later, explaining that they were determined to fight in Afghanistan.
In a guest house near the town of Miram Shah, the trio were introduced to two senior members of al Qaeda's external operations unit: Rashid Rauf, a British operative who orchestrated the London bombings in 2005 and the 2006 transatlantic airline plot, and Saleh al Somali, a senior East African operative who headed up the unit.
Both wanted the men to return to the United States to plan an attack there. The trio explained that their intention was to fight in Afghanistan and that they did not want to return to the United States.
"Keep it in your mind. Take time to think about it," al Somali replied.
At an al Qaeda camp in South Waziristan, the group met American Adnan Shukrijumah, who had joined al Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2000. He also tried to persuade them to return to the United States, saying they could avenge the U.S. drone attacks and pressure the United States to leave Afghanistan. He told them that other al Qaeda operatives lacked their travel documents or comfort operating in the United States.
Eventually, after Shukrijumah became increasingly insistent, according to Ahmedzay, they agreed - and discussion began about possible targets: the New York Stock Exchange, Times Square, Penn Station, Grand Central Station, movie theaters and the New York subway, because it was "the heart of everything in New York City," Zazi said later.
Shukrijumah suggested striking a Wal-Mart because it would damage the U.S. economy and told them that if they could not carry out a large attack, they should launch something smaller.
Zazi, escorted once again by Ahmad, later received specialized explosives training in South Waziristan, where he learned to build and successfully tested a variety of explosive devices. (Medunjanin had flown home because his visa was about to expire, and Ahmedzay had gone to visit his wife in Afghanistan.) He was told how to find the necessary chemicals and told how to pack ball bearings into the device.
Soon after Obama won the U.S. presidential election in 2008, Shukrijumah came to the camp and told Zazi he wanted his group to send a message to shake the incoming president by launching an attack during the transition before he took office. Zazi told him he'd need more time. But he signaled his commitment to the plot by recording a martyrdom video that Shukrijumah scripted, which could be used by al Qaeda after the attack. Before returning to the United States he and Ahmad set up a way to communicate by coded e-mails.
Preparing an attack
Zazi returned to New York in January 2009 but soon moved to the Denver area to try to allay any suspicions counterterrorism agencies might have.
In spring 2009, he returned to New York and met with Ahmedzay and Medunjanin in Queens. As they shot hoops on a basketball court, Zazi asked, "Are we still into the plan?" According to Zazi's account, they said they were. But Ahmedzay didn't tell Zazi that his wife had threatened to set fire to herself if he was involved.
They settled on a plan to launch an attack during Ramadan (Islam's holiest month, which that year was from late August to late September). Their hope at this stage was to explode a huge car bomb outside a New York building. Ahmedzay was taking advantage of his work as a cab driver to scope out targets.
Zazi returned to Denver and began to purchase chemicals necessary for the attacks, from hair salons and hardware stores. Several months later, the FBI was able to retrieve security camera footage of his shopping spree. He had agreed with Ahmedzay that the two of them would do most of the preparations for the attack and would bring Medunjanin as a suicide bomber.
FBI agents interview Najibullah Zazi on September 16, 2009.
In August, Zazi returned to New York and met up with Ahmedzay, telling him he did not think he could make a large car bomb because of missing pages in the notes he had transcribed but could build smaller suicide vests. During a discussion later in this trip in the seclusion of Bear Mountain State Park in upstate New York, they agreed that Zazi would make the detonators in Denver. They also settled on a plan to target New York subways during morning or afternoon rush hour so they could inflict the heaviest number of casualties, instill fear and inflict maximum economic damage.
On August 28, Zazi reserved a room at HomeStead Studio Suites in Aurora, Colorado, and worked over the next three days on building a detonator in its kitchen. Eventually, he was able to make a quantity of the high explosive TATP, which he placed in a white glass jar. He took it to an open area for a test.
"It worked the way I had been shown," Zazi testified. It was a significant breakthrough, as detonators are the trickiest parts of explosive devices to make.
He called Ahmedzay in New York. "I fixed the wires in the computer," he said in code he presumed his friend would understand. But in making the main charge, he hit a snag. He wanted to make a bomb based on a mixture of flour and ghee oil but had failed to make an accurate note of the correct mixture. At the end of August, he contacted a relation in Peshawar to ask Ahmad to e-mail him.
On the afternoon of September 6, several hours after Ahmad got in touch by email, Zazi again checked into the same Denver hotel room to make an additional amount of detonating explosive so there would be plenty to make three bombs. By then, Zazi had decided to make the main of the charge in New York. He also brought up Christmas light bulbs, which he intended to modify to trigger the device, an electric measuring scale, a calculator and a quantity of hydrochloric acid for making any additional TATP.
Aborting the mission
Zazi knew something was wrong when he was stopped on the George Washington Bridge. He drove to Ahmedzay's home, gave him the detonating explosive to store there and told him to get in the car. But Zazi later testified that they were sure they were being followed. At trial, it emerged that agents assigned to New York's Joint Terrorism Task Force were on their tail.
The pair flushed the acid down a toilet in a nearby Islamic center and threw away the light bulbs. When he got home, Ahmedzay flushed the TATP detonating explosive down his toilet.
"There was some residue," Ahmedzay later said. "I light (it) with a match, and it kind of ignited and popped."
Later that evening, Zazi met Medunjanin at their Queens mosque. He took out his cell phone and wrote a text, without sending it, which he showed Medunjanin on the screen.
"Police is after me. We are done," the text read.
"I love you for the sake of God," Medunjanin replied, according to Zazi.
Zazi was arrested shortly after flying back to Denver. In his first interview with the FBI, which was videotaped and played in court, he claimed that the electronic scales found by police in New York were to help his sister bake cakes.
For months, the FBI held off arresting Zazi's two New York friends as they tried to build a case against them.
Ahmedzay was arrested in January 2010. Medunjanin was arrested the same month after crashing his car into another vehicle in what prosecutors stated was a failed suicide attack. According to court documents, moments previously, he had called 911 and exclaimed, "We love death more than you love your life."
The fixer Ahmad was picked up by Pakistani security services, according to U.S. intelligence sources, and is now in custody. He had also acted as the point person in a plot by a Norwegian al Qaeda terrorist cell. A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said his poor operational tradecraft in using the same e-mail address to communicate with different plotters provided U.S. authorities with a lucky break. At trial Zazi testified his cell was planning to carry out the attack just days after he drove up to New York City.
Shukrijumah was promoted up the al Qaeda hierarchy after Rauf was killed in a drone strike in Waziristan in November 2008.
CNN's Susan Candiotti, Kiran Khalid, Tim Lister, Ross Levitt and Michael Teng contributed to this report.
@natlsecuritycnn on Twitter
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Just a FYI. I took Amtrak from Philly to Boston and no one checked my bags etc. The train went right under NY and stopped I am not sure what station in NY. No security at all.
And that's what makes the train so much better of an experience than flying. No groping, no hassle, no bull. Just buy your ticket, get on the train, and you're set. I understand there's a potential risk, but I'd rather live with the risk than deal with the insanity of the TSA.
Trains can be blown up yes...but they can not leave the tracks, and attack the White House, or the Pentagon, or the Congress, or tall buildings filled with thousands of people downtown....and you have no idea if there were undercover police, or law enforcement officers, or security people on the train with you...The rail roads do have their own security force...and personally if you count the time to get to the airports, to check in, go through security checks...and take off delays...traveling by train on the east coast is faster then taking a plane...and cheaper...and you can get up and move around, have a cheaper beer, use the bathroom..even pay for a private room.and arrive more relaxed.much better than a plane ride..
"an American of Bosnian descent" – I guess when not attempting to stir the pot, most people would call this guy just an American. Just wondering what percentage of "Bosnian" he was? Any African, maybe some Cuban, little English.
Let research this a little more, we can get other countries involved to.
Oh my god, you are a genius!
We can do statistical analysis of someone's heritage and use it to determine how much of a threat they are to the system! Why aren't we using this now?!
And it wouldn't be racist at all becau....
wait a minute......
"For months, the FBI held off arresting Zazi's two New York friends as they tried to build a case against them."
What?! You can build a case against terrorism suspects?! I thought you needed extra special super duper laws that give the government the power to assassinate people?
No way.... you can use the existing legal system to prosecute terrorism suspects? I don't believe it.
the Judgement Day is coming, not from above but from the bottom. be afraid. be very very afraid.
Stephen King wrote a book, "Dreamcatcher", about a hideous alien monster worm thing that climbs inside people bottoms when they are on the toilet and take over their minds and body... that was a really weird and scary book..Stephen King would probably be called insane if he did not write great books..ones that made just going to the toilet a scary thing...
Makes you wonder, just how wild his imagination was as a little kid...this giant alien worm monster kinda sounds like the nightmare of any little kid using the toilet for the first time......Mommy ..Mommy .but what if a giant monster worm comes up out of the toilet!!!
Uncle Frogpuppet. thanks bud!
If you waterboard these guys, you will find out WHO FUNDED their mission. But then again, Obama don't want to know.
Firstly, waterboarding is a disgusting practice used by medieval-minded psychopaths. Torture only makes someone say what the torturer wants to hear, not the truth.
Secondly, Obama is probably waterboarding more people than Bush, judging by the amount of outright lies he told the electorate, and the amount of phony promises he broke.
Islamic Centers and Mosques put to good use – destroy evidence and meet up with other terrorists.
1. "flushed the acid down a toilet in a nearby Islamic center "
2. "Later that evening, Zazi met Medunjanin at their Queens mosque"
CNN should write an article entitled: "Inside the plot to devastate freedom." Where the war on terror and the surveillance state are being turned on people who have done nothing wrong. The government seems to be saying nowadays, "guilty until proven innocent." They want you to have to prove you haven't done anything.
I know, expecting a major news outlet to defend something as silly as freedom is asking a lot, but it would be nice.
Who are the guilty parties sacrificing freedom upon the altar of safety?
Well, firstly the American people, for not really caring about what the government does as long as they are left alone. Most Americans simply prefer to parrot soundbites when confronted with the truth, as if they couldn't be bothered with reality.
Secondly, government itself, either under the delusion they are making America more free by destroying freedom or are in a blind lust for power and control over people.
One might also note that it seems corporations nowadays, such as Facebook, Google, and Yahoo do the surveillance by themselves. Especially Facebook, which is essentially a data capture apparatus that government would be chastised for using, but it's O.K. simply because its a private enterprise. Surveillance is being sub-contracted out to corporations in order to skirt laws which control data capture (even though lately the government doesn't particularly seem to care about the fourth amendment).
Try posting your ideas next to a news article that supports your case. I just read an account of real terrorist plot was thwarted.
Yes, you did, and I applaud you for it.
It's one pixel in a much larger picture. The irony of this story is that they are going to use the legal system to build a case against them, and try them. This goes to show how bogus laws like NDAA and the Military Commissions act are. You don't need them to deal with terrorism suspects, because terrorism suspects are criminals and should be tried as such.
Seriously, did the previous poster bother reading the article. There are small minded bigots lining up to try to damage the U.S. They are frustrated little men jealous of the success and wealth of the U.S. hoping to somehow capitalize in the after life. What sad little twits.. To all you would be jihadists, there is no after life. If you kill yourself prematurely trying to hurt the U.S. in the vain hope that you will be rewarded in some grand after life, you are a pathetic sad little puppet of some pathetic sad little person. Don't do it. Instead, do like the rest of us, work to make yourself into someone of importance and prominence, there is no shortcut to immortality.
I agree in part about the private companies collecting information on us..but that is not new..but the scale which it is done now is huge...what we post today will probably still be in some database years after we die....and I think Google is a hugely powerful tool for good or evil...and facebook and twitter helped a lot in the Arab Spring..and the two most common paper handout in the Arab spring were Wikileaks documents telling just how corrupt many Middle East governments really were...and also a short pamphlets written by Martin Luther King on how to create change in a society and government by using non-violent methods....
And did you know before 9/11 the FBI could not use the internet at most of their offices..I think they were even told not to use Google or internet search engines to look for terrorist web sites....
And our government worries about large global corporations too...Those corporations that pay bride money to do business oversea, could be supplying bad guys with hidden untraceable funds, money to terrorist without even knowing it...
Boeing was secretly working with Japan to design a long range bomber before the Perl Harbor Attack..Boeing did that without telling the U.S. government anything...Just for money...and many U.S. corporations have sold or tried top sell information to the Chinese in the recent decades...
and if you do not already know the story of John P. O'Neill you should Google it and read up on him...
And remember all U.S. Internet Service Providers now have to keep track of every web site their customers visit...and Google keeps track of the searches you make....Maybe someday these things will go away...maybe not..we will have to wait and see..
FBI hires and entraps disgruntled people. They supply them with bombs and weapons. The FBI is to blame. The FBI must be disbanded forever and it's top deputies put in prison.
Oh please!
They are "just doing their jobs."
"What's the problem if you've got nothing to hide?"
Let's see if I can dig up any more mindless, reactionary, vomit to spew all over the screen.
http://www.Hear-The-Truth.com
When will everyone understand that it is news "soundbites" that rule our country. Truth doesn't matter. Only getting the press' opinion across, and getting the highest ratings mean anything.
Once again, the terrorists were stopped by assets that predate Department of Homeland Security, and do not involve DHS. To all you small government Repubs, remember where this worthless, waste of a newer, bigger government agency came from (hint: it wasn't Obama). In the whole of its existence, TSA nor its parent DHS has caught a single terrorist, or stopped a single plot.
Yes the NSA has been around for awhile..and are suppose to only monitor communications in and out of our country, and overseas... like the CIA are suppose to limit what they do inside the country..pass the information on to the FBI, because domestic investigations is the FBI's territory, but the FBI now travels overseas to collect and investigate terrorist attacks...Things are getting interwoven because each group has their own special skills and equipment, but all of them need to share their information to stop these attacks...
You are so right friend! You are a super patriot, and I commend you with glitter and praise.
The NSA only monitors communications leaving this country or coming into this country, that's why they need data capture equipment at every major telecom hub inside the USA, and a massive facility in Bluffdale Utah to record and analyze every electronic communication in the world.
We can trust the NSA. They will never abuse their power. They never have abused their power. In fact, since it's written in their charter that they only operate outside the USA, they are incapable of abusing their power. Even if some crazy president came in and requested they operate inside the USA, they wouldn't be able to do it because it's not written in their charter.
Of course, the tin foil hat wearing conspiracy crazies will tell you they already have abused their power. They will tell you that governments routinely abuse their power, which is just crazy nonsense with no historical basis. We can trust the government, they just want to protect us. If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to hide. The government doesn't want access to all pieces of data relative to your life, that's just paranoia.
All of those protestor crazies, and those silly activists will complain to high-heaven that they are being harassed by the government, and tracked, but they're crazies so who cares?
Rest easy folks, the government cares very deeply about you and just wants to make sure you are protected and safe.
Uncle Frugpuppet, you are also a super patriot. I cannot agree with you more. We need more people like you in the USA, well informed and clear thinking.
Once a year somebody we've never met before visits my church. Theological exploration? No, usually no knowledge of theology and no interest, just interested in who is attending. At first we didn't mind (wink wink) because we figured that maybe a little theology might rub off somehow, and we pray for our country, but now it is irritating, because they waste our time and resources, physical and mental. All we have ever done is pray, and it is the same yesterday and today. Tomorrow? Our family all have mysterious illnesses. Of course we are not paranoid, this is just a bit of annoying reality.
Elizabeth
You mentioned family illnesses...And I thought I would add this...My mother was exposed to Radium as a nurse and was pregnant at the time with her first born. back in the 1948-1950 time frame..Her baby was born badly deformed, and died soon after the umbilical cord was cut, and while she was still in the hospital two men in black suits from the government/ military came and asked if she would give them her baby to study for the effects of radiation..She believed in medicine and science and said yes..She also donated her body to a medical school to be studies after she died...We did not understand all the effects of radiation back then in the late 1940-early 1950's...And in case you did not know..those above ground nuclear tests had radioactive clouds that traveled all the way to Chicago..and the government has been asking for tissue samples for decades on people that died with cancer and other illnesses to study the long term effects...Japan does this, and the USSR does this..and now in Japan they have a new group because of the accident at the nuclear power plant...Our government does not always tell us everything..or why..but I still would rather live here than many other places in the world..
Peter,
You're ignorant. I had a family member who worked for DHS, even back when it was the INS. I suggest you visit the DHS site and learn about what they do, even apply get a job with them if you think they do nothing, if you think you're so damn smart.
Their jobs can be very dangerous, they're on top of a lot of security issues and work with agencies, we just don't hear about what they're doing because that would defeat our security.
There is nothing patriotic about being a know-nothing windbag who complains about the services and people who protect us.
I'm sure people living under Stalin had relatives working for the NKVD too.
You shouldn't confuse love of government with patriotism. Patriotism means standing up for what's right. Sometimes this means standing alone outside the stream of popular sentiment.
Your comment about him being a "know-nothing windbag" is quite interesting. Of course he is not privy to the same amount of information as someone working on the inside, but here on the 'outside' we have story after story of abuse at the hands of DHS and other security agencies within the US, who hide behind the smokescreen of 'national security.'
We're told to trust them because they are just trying to 'keep us safe.' This trust has worn thin and is nearly non-existent because of all the abuse that has gone on. And yet, you still say 'trust them' because you 'know someone' and they are 'trying to keep us safe.'
Use your mind, please.
Thank You Patriot Act.
Thank you Patriot act!
Thank you NDAA!
Thank you NSA!
Thank you Millitary Commissions Act!
Thank you Guantanamo!
Thank you Department of Fatherland security!
Thank you Jesus, for appointing such wise and benevolent people to power!
This is how we stay so free. Stop complaining about your rights. Do you want to get killed by a terrorist? Who cares if they watch you all the time, that's the price of freedom. You people need to stop complaining about your puny rights. This country is a glorious beacon of light shining as a second sun upon the world, and you people have the nerve to complain about a little surveillance, and legal assassinations?
God, you're what's wrong with America.
Paul Cruickshank, fantasy fiction writer extraordinaire.
Probably all invented. Am I the only one who read 1984?
if this were anything close to the book 1984 then Zazi would have been arrested when he first got pulled over for speeding
When George Orwell wrote the book "1984", most of that had already happened in 1939 in Germany,
and the USSR in 1917.
His book was just a rewrite of recent world events ..he published it in 1949..
That kind of world has existed many times inside many countries in the worlds history to someways..He just added newer technology to the story..
Well no historians are reading the posts today, or they just did not want to bother to correct or add to my statement..
George Orwell's nightmare life in his book 1984, or something like it, actually started in Germany in 1933 with Hitler taking power over Germany..but Hitler started his quest for power in 1919...
I am still too worried about Snowball and Napolean from Orwell's other famous text. I saw we kill all the pigs, just in case.
Modizzle18
You know George Orwell wrote "The Animal Farm"..as a political statement about how Communism will always fail, because while "All animals are equal, some animals a more equal then others", is about the belief that in a Communist country the people own everything togetherby way of the state, and all the people are suppose to be equal, but the leaders become corrupted by the power, and want more, and more, control over the people......meaning the leaders gain power and abuse it..do not want to give it up, and take too much for themselves..becoming corrupted just like the old government they revolted against..USSR had that problem, and we see it now in China, but not as bad, but the problem is growing, and the people in China see it.
We have seen abuse of power in Kingdoms, "Let them eat cake", and we saw it with single dictators. We also see it in the current Capitalist countries where the top Super Rich can buy the countries leaders, and control the elections and the laws, and try to control the population...Abuse of the system, no matter what government system happens..
This is what I love about America and free speech..
We have stories telling us how to make bombs, I remember the failed New York car bomber, within days the news media was showing us diagrams of the car, what he had used, and how the bomb worked, and even bomb experts telling us what the guy did wrong...We all could make bombs...so what..I'm not into killing people that way..
So the government is reading our e-mails and internet posts...So what, nothing new, private companies can buy that too, if they want to hire the right people, and no one is hidden from the government, if they really want to know who you are, again private companies can do this too...
You have to understand we have also been collecting information on our people..all governments do. Many laws going back to WWI, WWII, cold war...even before that the Civil War...the War for Independence...It goes all the way back to before the Romans, remember information about Jesus was collected. In Roman times and before, when the traveling merchants shared information with the local leaders..and were paid for it..and then went to the next town, or country, and did the same thing...
And then in this same story we have the wide range of comments...all kinds of things that would land people in prison in other countries, and they post them here...and we hear them all and no one is through in jail...Well if depends how crazy the comments are I guess, in some cases you can get in trouble...
We each express our views and give our facts and it is interesting...And the government still stands....We still stand...Our system may not be perfect..but all systems have problems...It's because of our human nature..Every person has some good and bad in them. Every person looks around and see things they do not like, get mad....Sometimes just voicing our complaints, getting them our of our brains, and hearts, and saying them, purges our inter demons. sometimes it just makes the inter demons stronger..We all have to watch our inter demons....and take a good look in the mirror each day..
These guys should have just opened a bicycle repair shop...and ate yogurt..and voiced their opinions about politics in a non-violent way..
Do a single Google and you can find a dozen recipes for improvised explosives... but really, all anyone really needs is to have paid attention during High School Chemistry. Any common textbook details the reactions and formulations. Acting as if this wasn't true doesn't make it any less so. It's not if people are capable of building weapons, it's whether we can find those that DO. I would guess a solid one in four (or higher) people with a high school education could with a little experimentation create a device which would qualify as a weapon at least as capable as those described.
My point is that the "technology" of an Improvised Explosive Device isn't some arcane thing, as anyone who has done a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan can tell you. The lack of what appears to be common knowledge (building IED's) in those caught trying to do so.. is strange to say the least.
Focalist
My father worked at a big grain elevator..Many people know grain dust is very dangerous...We have dangerous stuff all around us...We use to sell dynamite to any farmer to blow out tree stumps..some states still sell fireworks year round, that are 1/16 or 1/8 the power of single stick of dynamite...
You also mentioned Iraq and IED's..
Those IED's in Iraq started just days after we disbanded the Iraqi Army, and sent 250,000 Iraq troops home without any jobs...
First those unemployed Iraqi troops raided the lightly or unprotected Iraqi military depots, and grabbed bombs, and artillery shells, and other weapons, then blew up the oil wells, and oil pipelines, looted the power plants, and water pumping stations, for the copper to sell, and the cities for food and supplies...Then started their IED campaigns, just days after being sent home..our little hummers were never designed to handle that kind of explosives...
To bad our military leaders forgot what General Patton did in Germany right after the war..Patton used the Nazi's to keep the electricity working, the running water working, the train running...and replaced the Nazi's when he had qualified people that could do their jobs..
We should have given those Iraqi troops light weapons, hand guns, rifles and sent them out to keep the peace, protect the oil wells, oil pipelines, the food supplies..clean up the city streets, handout food..I suppose we might not have done that because we did not have Saddam yet...but throwing 250,000 trained soldiers out on the streets without jobs was not a good idea either..
The Claw...
Since WW1 we have had national security laws that are used for grabbing foreign spies, people watching and collect information around our military bases, and for anyone collect money for a foreign enemy military...Phones around our military bases can be monitored...Curtis LeMay was big into this...
And I love free speech..but realize that all free speech just makes it easier to listen in, and note who is in the public rallies who is in the crowds, and find out what those people do...
The FBI under Hoover, watch a lot of people..He watched everyone in Congress..and he watch Martin Luther King, and John Lennon, and many more...Hoover collected a lot of information and used it...That is our history...and that is why we will never have another leader of the FBI like Hoover, that serves that long in the top position..Power Corrupts
Checks and Balances to power is what we rely on...and one of those check and balances is individual free speech, and a free press, and news media, to talk about our own government, and be free to criticize it, and our leaders...
"You have to understand we have also been collecting information on our people..all governments do."
As if the injustices of the past somehow justify the injustices of the present.
"And then in this same story we have the wide range of comments...all kinds of things that would land people in prison in other countries, and they post them here...and we hear them all and no one is through in jail...Well if depends how crazy the comments are I guess, in some cases you can get in trouble..."
Yes, it's called free speech. We shouldn't use dictatorships and tyrannical governments as a rubric for how free we are. We should set the example of how free a society can be, not look to others to measure how free we are in comparison.
The guy says to 911 "We love death more than you love your life". Well guess what...we will not let him enjoy his love. You shall perish in jail with your dick shoved in your ass for the rest of your life and always missing what you love.
Yea you tell em Jim-bob! We can run him over with a monster truck and drape the confederate flag over his body, then go watch NASCAR and wrestle with pigs!
"We love death more than you love your life." – please provide your names and addresses – we can easily give you what you love.
Address will be Pakistan for sure 🙂
What a collection of great minds ! We the American people are so lucky to have champions of the truth like yourselves on the front lines protecting us and shedding light on all the lies we are told by the mainstream media. However, where is it that you all get your information ? Im just curious, I mean apparently all of us sheep that watch CNN and read news articles are just victims , but you people have the inside scoop. You people have to be kidding me ? Im not saying that I believe everything my government tells me , far from it in fact. But what kills me is how arrogant people can be in thinking they are so much more enlightened than everyone else. You sit around stewing in your parents basement blogging away about every crazy THEORY that comes into your mind. I stress the word theory because that is all that you nut jobs have, is theories. But what amazes me is that you pass them off as fact. You have to acknowledge the fact that every news piece and opinion article is skewed by someone's perceptions and agenda. Get over yourselves, your not that intelligent, your not that deep and for god sakes quit perpetuating the cycle of ignorance by spreading unsubstantiated bullshit. The most dangerous disease in this world is also the most contagious, its called ignorance.
look up hypocrite in the dictionary =)
I will never fully comprehend why people who live in America go around insulting every minute detail about it. No one's begging you to stay here.
Criticism is a precursor to improvement. In order to fix a problem you must first identify a problem. You're saying that if someone criticizes the country they should leave? I'm glad you weren't in charge of the Continental Army, or we'd still be a British protectorate.
US---Israel---UK
Axis of dEvil
Because they caught you, making bombs for god? Sure thing. Steal, get caught and blame.
I wish CNN would take away the anonymity and force all the commentors to look at one another before speaking.
... says 'that guy'. Way to make a stand!
BURN!!
You all have lied so much to the American people over this last decade, and especially since the Y2K baloney – Boy Cried Wolf – no wonder no one believes anything you all say anymore.
I think with 9/11 that the men accused probably did commit the crimes – but no one will ever convince me that the world's greatest military and Pentagon couldn't see it coming when they miss nothing insofar as traffic violations are concerned.
I'm sorry.
You should be busted, Washington, DC for committing fraud against the American people.
Do grow up.
Should of, could of, would of is what happens when the super ego interferes with logic. Those guys got away with murder because our people were not working together and in spite of in some cases, and we thought we were far too superior to be attacked.
What are you ranting about? This article gives plenty of details, and sounds plausible to me. You might want to take your own advice: Grow Up, and stop your conspiracy theory nonsense.
To Fraud, I am with you. To me it sounds inconceivable that a man in a cave orchestrated 9-11 and when you look at the evidence, this had to be an inside job. Cheney was in his WH bunker conducting war games that day similar to what was happening in NY. Is that just a coincidence? When you look at the towers soon after the planes hit and the jet fuel had burned off, emitting smoke curling upward. Would that have collapsed those very strong buildings. And I have always wondered how they could collapse so neatly into themselves just as though the job had been done by demolition. And then building 7 collapses and it was never hit. Oh never mind, stuff happens and the American public bought it all, never even questioning and Bush/Cheney got their wars and Cheney made billions of dollars and the little people got behind Bush like sheep running to the slaughter house. Pathetic.
We couldn't do anything to stop the 9/11 attacks because US intelligence did not have the right to share information with law enforcement. That's why the Patriot Act was adopted unanimously, and you can thank the PA again for preventing these subway bombings as well as the countless other attempted terrorist attacks.
There are whites in Africa and in Asia. Plenty whites in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, UAE, Saudi, etc. People follow the money trail bud, the rednecks of all countries see us globalistic citizens as "threats" but we have always existed.
Redneck is an anti-white racial slur. Please apologize.
-----
Everybody says the final solution to the RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to bring in the third world and assimilate with them.
Immigration, tolerance, and especially assimilation are being used against the white race.
All this immigration and intermarriage is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries.
Anti-white is called anti-racist, but it leads to the disappearance of one race and only one race, the white race. The real aim of anti-racism is to wipe out the white race or make it a minority anywhere it exists.
It is genocide.
This is so scary that three men that are very motivated can actually pull off something like this. The only reason these people were on the radar is because they were actually doing traveling to Afghanistan and tribal areas of Pakistan to meet with their handlers. But honestly this kind of bombings don't require handlers across the world. I think if these people are intelligent enough and motivated enough, they can start blowing shit up themselves...that's the scary part. I am a naturalized American from India and terror (the daily threat of it) is no stranger to me. The lack of security in crowded places like the places in NYC mentioned here is scary. Kudos to the FBI for doing a great job tracking these guys, but I am still shit scared about the ones that are not having to go to Afghanistan/Pakistan/Yemen to get their militancy training.
More liberal lies! The terrorists were eliminated under George W. Bush and everybody knows it!
GW Bush and Cheney were the terrorists. The Bin Laden family and Bush's planned it.
Obama found and killed Bin Laden, and everybody KNOWS that is true.
Satire.
yes. we all know the war in Iraq ended years before Obama finally brought the troops home. Bush told us so
I distinctly remember a speech in front of a 'Mission Accomplished' banner onboard an Aircraft Carrier. When the President "lands" a fighter jet on a big boat and tells me we won, by all that's righteous and holy, we won gosh-darnit. Mission Accomplished! All that's left is to round up the stragglers!
Here we go. Should put a stop on who gets to US and who does not . You have problem with illegal immigration but what bout these people ?
If the bad guys weren't using code for fertilizer and diesel fuel when they were discussing "flour and ghee" then we're all doomed to eat West Asian food without Naan. Yikes!
Again and Again Pakistan has proved itself to be the epicenter of terrorism and yet we go after Iraq/ Iran and reward Pakistan billions to kill American. what kind of policy is this...
It's call capitalism. Get used to it.
why do they use and ugly british man to analyze all this
how come they dont talk about the white terrorists ????????
scum bags
You'll have to go outside of the main stream media if you want to read about the occupy movement. Fox News might have some stories, but the media generally doesn't like bashing their own.
Yall was on them like stank on you know what I am sayin mannnnnnnn.
New York survived the 70s' (and early 80s'). Not to mention 9/11. If any city can survive anything..........
im pritty sure he was going to end with either Moscow, Morocco, or Bucharest.
Africa for Africans, Asia for Asians, White Countries for Everybody
Annihilation by Assimilation
Every white country on earth is supposed to become multicultural and multiracial. EVERY white country is expected to end its own race and end its own culture. No one asks that of ANY non-white country.
J.T. Ready, is that you?
j.t.?
Everybody says the final solution to the RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to bring in the third world and assimilate with them.
Immigration, tolerance, and especially assimilation are being used against the white race.
All this immigration and intermarriage is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries.
Anti-white is called anti-racist, but it leads to the disappearance of one race and only one race, the white race. The real aim of anti-racism is to wipe out the white race or make it a minority anywhere it exists.
It is genocide.
Do you include pink skin? I know I'm not albino like you, but I’m fun and parties.
In white countries when you force/coerce or socially engineer immigration,integration, tolerance and blending of races, in the end you have a non-white population left. Its just a matter of time. That is white genocide.
“Genocide involves the attempt to achieve the disappearance of a group by whatever means. It does not have to be violent, it could be a combination of policies that would lead to a certain group dying out.”
Fraser-PM, Australia 1975-83
Anti-racist is a codeword for anti-white.
You obviously don't know what a genocide is. People immigrating to the US isn't even close to genocide. Keep in mind we proudly display the Statue of Liberty, welcoming "the cold and hungry" from countries who aren't as fortunate as ours.
It's racists like you that give countries and people incentives to attack us like on 9/11 and the potential threat mentioned on this site.
Statue Liberty needs be torn down and melt the copper out her nose. Time has come to stop screwing around sheeple...time has come to start the true weeding out of mental rejects that breed like flies on camel nuts.
The 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article II states:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
We are talking about massive immigration without the consent of white people. We are also talking about the targetting of all white countries for this immigration. When you add to immigration, forced integration and coerced tolerance, you get assimilation which is planned and results in the genocide of the white race. Not reasonable?
America is NOT a "white" country. You Whities stole America, raping and murdering along the way. You owe. Oh yes, you owe.
get a job
Will you take a check?
You Sir ...NO NOT YOU !! THE OTHER ONE ! Are you an Idiot by Choice?
We aint going to pay....hahahaha....cause we is broke ass mountain.
Want to ride my pole whitey....
If I had known all this was going to happen, I would have picked the damn cotton myself!
Makes you feel good to justify white genocide today doesn't it? Gives you a feeling of moral grandeur. Obviously you are anti-white. That's a personal choice. Wouldn't your justification of white genocide actually justify the crimes you allege were committed by whites? Looking into the past to justify the present, seems stone age to me.
The US Founders never would have imagined an American elite so corrupt that they would dissolve the people and import a new one. But how about the WHITES? There future?
How is this not genocide:
White countries are being flooded by non-whites. We are told to be TOLERANT. We are forced to integrate.
With assimilation we see the extinction of one race only, the white race. Its not funny, not comedy, its white genocide.
listen you filthy trash bag, your white women are crazy about my brown cok, they spit your white ugly
poverty stricken white men. First go reason this out with your own kind before you complain on here.
You are part of the problem. There are many fine non-whites. You are not one of them.
Anti-whites like to say Diversity is “freedom” for non-Whites to enter White living space and “mix in” with whomever they wish.
However, White people are not allowed to refuse this freedom, so it is the anti-whites diversity we are FORCED to accept.
It’s Genocide.
surely, the must plan, and its anoda tin 4 d plan to fail
" you got a SUSBECT, driving to new york in the anniversery of the attacks"
whata frudgesicle, did we forget what a susbect means, innocent until proven guilty, with all the hype in the video not a single evidence shows guilt. this is bull shiatsu
You Arab illiterate sand monkey. You Arabs don't have the letter 'P' in your pathetic alphabet and can't even pronounce it. You are so lazy to learn anything. The word is SUSPECT moron! Yes he was a SUSPECT not a convict. That's what trial is for. You don't have a f*cking clue about American justice system do you?
Classy Herman... real classy.
I feel the rage oozing out of your pores as you pound the keyboard.
My advice is to relax. This article is propaganda. True perhaps but done for a purpose. Don't be blinded by hate and certainly take note of the fact that all emails sent by all Americans are scanned by government computers for keywords.
You amerikan white trash, u have too many red dots on your face, and no country likes your ugly face
Yes this is true.You don't have the letter "ll";Thus you are incapable of telling a truly funny I love Lucie Joke.
The whole concept of "anti-terrorism" is a sick joke in the context of massive immigration and "assimilation" imposed on every white country and only white countries.Everyone agrees that eliminating non-white groups by any means is genocide,but anti-whites claim it`s OK for white people.
Try again. The whole concept of switching from cold wars between nations and terrorism is to switch the emphasis from feign to domestic. If the news says to "look out for Russian/Chinese/fill in blank ethnicity or country here ", government agents can fell justified spying and oppressing these people groups. On the other hand, If the news says "terrorists', this has a broader nature that allows self justification for spying on a broader spectrum and more individually. If no spying conflict is happening, many people are out of job selling spying equipment and searching for bad guys. (Sorry for any spelling or grammatical errors)
You are ignoring the obvious genocide occurring to the white race.
A war against the white race is called WHITE GENOCIDE. It is supported by anti-whites. FORCE and FRAUD are virtues in the success of war. FORCE: massive immigration, integration, tolerance, assimilation; FRAUD: denial of genocide, spinning obvious realities in support of white genocide.
Anti-racist is a codeword for anti-white.
Paul Cruickshank, and all who helped, thank you for a very interesting and fun read! You guys could write some great novels if you wanted, that much is clear. Thx!
CNN SECURITY CLEARANCE. what a joke
every foiled terror plot is an FBI setup. every one back to the OKC job.
the us govt manufactures and controls any terrorists for its benefit. source; NY TIMES. (LOOK IT UP)
the media does the bidding of this govt. msnbc and cnn received YOUR bailout money.
you people like to be scammed by this lying,empirical group of banks that has usurped our govt.
all of the above is undisputable fact.
You may be right. There are numerous examples of similar plots in history made for political and economical gains.
Affirmative! Manufactured like they're using a manual. If you believe this, I have some ice I sell you in Siberia.
You are correct. On the other hand, your sentence structure makes you look like a loon. I suggest English 341 and 102.
All these plotted targets in the civilized world of New York City! Rediculous! let's face it, if the Islamic terrorists really want to make a statement and have an effective impact on American foreign policy they perceive as detrimental to their cultures and survival, they need not look any further than targets in red states in this country! All the oppressive war policies against the Islamic world are driven and supported by republicans and republican constituents! So do you think the confederates in the red Americans states would care if you keep targeting decent Americans in blue states? Why not targets in Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Nebraska and so on? Please stop targeting loving, caring and patriotic law abiding American citizens who respect foreign cultures and the world order!
"Why not targets in Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Nebraska and so on? Please stop targeting loving, caring and patriotic law abiding American citizens who respect foreign cultures and the world order!"
I don't think that anyone in any state should be targeted at all, especially because of where they live. Are you serious? I am from Georgia, and I can tell you, I am loving, caring, and a patriotic law abiding American citizen. I respect foreign culture and embrace diversity. You don't have to live north of the Mason-Dixon line to have those attributes. It is people like you, who continue to make idiotic statements like the one above, that contribute to the divisions happening in this country.
Then perhaps you could convince your red state neighbors to stop electing rightwing lunatics like GWB and Dick Cheyney and those in the republican party who keep dragging us into senseless wars that take the lives of our troops and subsequently put all of us a risk! And perhaps you could tell the Ted Nugents and Rush Limbaughs of the world to stop spreading their hate and dividing America with their Jim Crow bigotry and racism! Then perhaps we can all get along! Let's face it, hate can go both ways and so can love! Peace!
I hear you, I hear you. But... the problem is, if they blow up Denver or something, nobody will even notice 😉
you are an absolute unpatriotic, pathetic bigot. everything you said shows your clear lack of basic intelligence and makes you much worse than the so called "confederates" whom you seek to dehumanize and make savage. you are basically saying that American citizens in states that tend to vote republican deserve to be targeted by terrorists because those whom they elect create policies that further enrage the terrorists? you think that it's ok to say that? you assert that people who are republican are not decent people by saying that americans that live in blue states are "decent." the person you vote for or your locale doesn't decide your character... i live in New York City, in one of the most liberal areas of Manhattan, and i can assure you that just cause someone is a democrat doesn't mean they are decent. likewise, people who vote republican aren't automatically indecent people. your statement shows that you are a fucking idiot. i am appalled that you would even intimate that you are part of the patriotic group of americans for even fucking suggesting that other americans should be targeted by attacks. No american should be targeted by these ridiculous attacks, and for your information, democrats overwhelmingly supported the decision to invade afghanistan, in addition to choosing to invade iraq. i leave you with this: get a fucking reality check you unpatriotic, inhumane animal; your statement shames our country.
The Pentagon is in the South fucking idiot
Sanath z d best hitter yet. we don't like our caaptn sanga.bcz he z very bad caaptn & he can't win d series.Come on sanath u can play very well yet. u r d our hero 4 ever (0)
10:00 am – Al Kinda moron awakes and rises from a mat on a dirt floor
11:00 am – Get's a sheep from outside.
11:05 am – Puts sheeps hind legs in his boots so he doesn't get kicked.
11:10 am – Whispers in sheeps ear (foreplay).
11:11 am – Penetrates sheep.
11:11:01 am – Done. It was a very cute sheep.
11:11:02 am – Goes back to sleep.
The voice of experience?
More than likely better than your mom!!!!!!!!! Hahahahahahhaha
Well.......if anyone should know...
Sheep are good substitution to human flesh. They're fluffy and understanding 🙂 And you can also eat them.