Thank goodness the FBI were right on top of this in a big way and had an undercover agent “in the plot” and thus averted disaster but I’m aghast that a guy was trying to blow up a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas! The terrorist planted what he thought to be a very powerful bomb at the 60-story Fountain Place office tower and then sat in a car with the undercover agent a distance away and dialed the cellphone number he thought would send the building crashing down –instead it was the number to alert law enforcement to swoop in and arrest him.
More frightening was that an almost identical plot was unfolding in the Midwest of the U.S. in Illinois during the same week last week but the plotters were unaware of one another and thus the plots were similar but unrelated. The FBI was on top of that one too. In both cases they were able to identify the guys as they were seeking the bombs and use two agents undercover as Al Qaeda operatives to supply bogus bombs to them and then sit by as the plot unfolded to the end where they guys actually pushed the “explode” button.
The strategy is different from what has been used before, when they nabbed people in the planning stages but before they actually planted and attempted to blow anything up. The previous strategy resulted in many of the attempting-to-be-terrorists getting off with very light sentences or getting off completely for lack of evidence that they would actually do anything. Clearly these two guys that were caught were not just planning but actively trying to do something and would have succeeded if the explosives had been real.
Of course, this strategy is only going to work if they are able to identify and infiltrate the plot and make sure that the terrorists can’t actually do what they are trying to do. Thus far, the FBI has done a really great job since 9/11, you’ve got to hand it to them, with dozens of terrorist attempts averted at one stage or another, and no attempts succeeding.
But the plots in both Dallas, Texas and in tiny little Springfield, Illinois send a real chill. I’ve long said and worried that eventually the terrorists are going to begin hitting the U.S. in the same way terrorists have hit us here in Israel –not just going after the biggest cities and the ‘big’ targets, but hitting in ‘anywhere town.’ And clearly, that is what has happened. Thank G-d for the FBI.
The US is so huge, the borders so porous, and the number of potential nutters so large, that averting a terrorist attack is extremely challenging. In addition to the foreign terrorists, there are homegrown fanatics right here in the US. I’m relieved that the FBI was able to avert this disaster.
I was in Dallas when this happened.
The FBI Agents, posing his accomplices, offered the Jordanian born wanna be terrorist some ear plugs. But he refused them saying that the wanted to hear the explosion.
A thousand people were in the building at the time. Imagine if it were a real bomb.
Seems all of Obama’s appeasement towards moslems hasn’t worked. How surprising. Not that anyone should expect people to learn from history…
It seems though that Obama’s patience is wearing thin with those who won’t consider reasonable offers that lead to peace. I think that if peaceful, diplomatic strategies don’t work, he may very well be prepared for a military option. I am thinking of Iran—Stratfor has an interesting article on this.
Tiger Mike, I know that you were in Dallas! Yikes. Glad you and everyone in Dallas escaped harm.
Terrorists are sick, sick, sick. No sane person considers killing innocent people.
Not sick. Evil. If it was a sickness you could not really blame them for it. It is evil. They are sane, most often even intelligent people who simply substitute their own rules, desires and cares and wipe out whoever is in their way of achieving their egotistic goals. Evil.
Sir John, yes, evil. There is no other word for it. Evil.
Anyone who beleives this nonsense about “al qaeda” is insane.
How can American society tolerate 39,252 deaths associated with automobile collisions in 2005, or 438,000 smoking related deaths in 2008, both instances where we “killed ourselves,” and yet devote more resources and political energy to fighting terrorists, who have killed far fewer US citizens? There is a reason which reflects much about us.
[...] whole mess of attempted terrorist attacks that were broken up between the two successful ones (see here and then here for [...]