In his press conference this morning, Tom Ridge cited five specific buildings as possible Al Qaeda targets: The World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., the Prudential Building in Newark, N.J., and the Citicorp buildings and New York Stock Exchange in New York City.
The New York Stock Exchange
UPDATE: I wonder whether this alert will: 1) cause Al Qaeda to call off this particular plot and look for an alternative; 2) cause them to “move up” the plot to an earlier date, quite soon, in the hopes of catching us off-guard before we’ve fully put our security measures in place; or 3) have little or no effect on their operational plans.
If Al Qaeda were to choose option 2 or option 3, and were to successfully pull off an attack against one or more of these buildings, it occurs to me that that would be a major success for the terrorists, and would be perceived as a major failure for the government and Bush. This announcement by Ridge has really raised the stakes, in a way.
In response to a reporter’s question, Ridge said the Pakistani woman who was apprehended illegally crossing the border with a fishy passport, $7,000 in cash, and a plane ticket to New York (see previous post) is not connected to this plot. Uhh…. riiiiight. I’m thinking Ridge may have just said that because the woman’s name was specifically mentioned and she, unlike Al Qaeda as a whole, enjoys the presumption of innocence. That’s just a guess, though.
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Categories: Terrorism & Homeland Security
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August 1st, 2004 at 12:34:07 pm
It makes me wonder if the terrorists are releasing specific info to make us focus on the wrong places?
They are not known for being specific are they???
I just have this sinking feeling there really is no way to know ahead of time…
Like an earthquake… you know it is going to happen but you never know which fault will let loose…
I think it is just wishful thinking and peoples
instinct to try to figure it out.. but I think in this case that warning way in deed be a Peric Victory … I HOPE NOT!
The real question is… if you worked in one of those locations would you go to work?
August 1st, 2004 at 2:31:16 pm
The other possibility is that the attack will come to neither New York or to DC, but rather to another American city now that all this has been discovered. And I don’t necessarily mean it has to be somewhere huge like L.A. or Chicago. It could come to some smaller, but still fairly important city. Which city, I’m not sure . . . but second-tier cities (and I mean no disrespect to these cities by calling them “second-tier”) like Cleveland, Baltimore, Miami, etc.
You have to admit, after 9/11, attacking somewhere smaller might have an even bigger effect on the populace . . .
August 1st, 2004 at 2:41:11 pm
Mmmmmchocolate.
I’m not one to be downright cynical, but I can help but wonder whether there’s a conspiracy afoot.