JFK plot had little chance of success

[radfringe]

JFK plot had little chance of success
Terror: Documents show suspects were long on evil intent, short on capability.
By Michael Powell and William K. Rashbaum, The New York Times
06/03/2007 10:31:10 PM PDT
http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_6054832

NEW YORK - The plot as painted by law enforcement officials was cataclysmic: A home-grown Islamic terrorist had in mind detonating fuel storage tanks and pipelines and setting fire to Kennedy International Airport, not to mention a substantial swath of Queens.

"Had the plot been carried out, it could have resulted in unfathomable damage, deaths and destruction," Roslynn R. Mauskopf, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, said in a news release that announced charges against four men.

---snip---

But a reading of the criminal complaint filed by the federal authorities against the four defendants in the case - one of them remained at large Sunday - suggests a less than mature terror plan, a proposed effort longer on evil intent than on operational capability.

At its heart was a 63-year-old retired airport cargo worker, Russell Defreitas, who the complaint says talked of his dreams of inflicting massive harm, but who appeared to possess little money, uncertain training and no known background in conceptualizing or planning a terror attack.

"Capability low, intent very high," a law enforcement official said of the plotters.

---snip---

Neal R. Sonnett, a defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor who was chief of the criminal division in the U.S. attorney's office in Miami, congratulated the FBI for fine police work in what was clearly "a prosecutable case." But he said: "There unfortunately has been a tendency to shout too loudly about such cases."

"It has a bit of the gang that couldn't shoot straight to it," he said. "It would have served the federal government well to say that."

[radfringe]

1. old tv episode

with every news report of a terrorist plot being thwarted, the hoopla booga-booga that follows and then we learn it's not all as originally reported - it reminds me of an epidode on an old tv show

don't remember if it was on outer limits or the twilight zone or something with a similar format

The story revolved around this woman who was accusing a neighbor of being an alien and a threat. At the end of the story, the woman is in the DA's office being told they have apprehended the neighbor (or killed the man during the arrest attempt) so she's safe now. The woman then turns around and starts making the same accusations against other people in the office - that they are aliens intent on destroying the planet.

"He's an alien, you're an alien too, and you and you..."

It becomes clear that the woman's original accusations against the neighbor was based on deranged thinking.

That scene flashes across my mind every time I see a news report about some people being arrested and a terror plot being thwarted...

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Plus: plot included government informant.

Completely unrealistic, no actual plans, no actual means to effect unrealistic plans that didn't exist anyway, rat working the project to get off drug charges. Gosh this is getting tedious.

[ddeclue]

3. These people were incompetent idiots...

There is NO way they would have gotten anywhere close to their goal. They were NOT a credible threat, just a bunch of delusional fantasizers.

1) All these fuel systems have a huge number of safety systems built in specifically to prevent such a fire from occurring with check valves, cutoff valves, physical separation, fire detection systems, fire suppression systems, actual on-site fire and police depts, fences, alarms and other security systems.

2) Airfields place the fuel tanks at a substantial distance from the airplanes and then deliver fuel to planes in trucks. This is done to protect the passengers, and the terminals from fire threats. This has been the case for 60 years or more.

3) These people in question had no skills, no money, and didn't even live in the country, much less have access to the airfield. This sounds to me like another case of the gov't trying to talk people into saying incriminating things (entrapment) who otherwise have no ability or interest in doing them, like they did with the Miami fools who said they were going to attack buildings in Chicago a year ago.

This seems to be an attempt to take the news cycle away from Democrats and our debate to me, not a serious success by law enforcement.

4) It is quite clear from their rambling babble about Kennedy and the Kennedy airport that these people had no idea what they were talking about. Even had they been able to start a fire, it would not have spread, and it WOULD have been put out. It would not have done any real damage to anything, the airport, or the economy. It is just delusional for them to claim that they were going to "destroy the American economy for some time". JFK airport is just one of 3 major airports in the NY area (if you don't count ISLIP and Teterboro) and is subject to frequent weather delays/shutdowns already without "destroying the economy".

There is just NO way these people posed a meaningful threat that justified all the panicked shreiking that went on about it on the news a few days ago.

We need to grow a backbone in this country and get some perspective.

The real threats to Americans are all self-imposed lifestyle choices:

We are overweight, out of shape - we eat too much, drink too much, smoke too much, and exercise too little.

We are most likely to die from heart attack, stroke, cancer, lung disease, automobile accident, or gunshot wounds. Terrorism is realistically right about as likely a cause of death as snake bite or lightning strike.