BREAKING NEWS: Padilla admits plot to "simultaneously blow up 20 buildings"
 

No article yet. Tune into nat'l news for coverage of presss conf.

Alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla has admitted to taking an assignment from the mastermind of the 9-11 attacks to simultaneously detonate explosive devices intended to collapse 20 builidngs in several US cities. He recieved training in secure phone lines and Al-Quaeda email protocls, as well as large amounts of cash, from al-Quaeda sources

More to come when it is available

edit: http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/06/01/us....ap/index.html

url=http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/02/20/scotus.enemy.combatant/]full story[/url]

Now, isn't this exactly the kind of thing we have treason on the books to cover?

Well, that would have been impressive if he pulled it off.

Pretty far fetched though... Sounds like a really bad movie plot.

I was thinking the same. A bad movie plot for a Steven Segal movie perhaps.

Maybe a Steven Segal & Jean Claude Van Dam buddy flick?

while it does seem far fetched those of you who are XFiles fans will note that the first episode of defunct spin off, The Lone Gunmen, was in fact about a plane (remotely controlled) being flown into one of the World Trade Towers.


Art imitates life, which imitates art.

Now please stop wishing for a Steven Segal/Jean Claude flick.
brrrr
shivers down my spine.

Steven Segal & JC is a bit much. I think it should be Steven Segal and Dennis Rodman. DR did a flick with JC, so I think its time SS & DR teamed up to fight terror... It's the natural progression of things...

Pre 9/11, wouldn't flying a couple of passenger jets into targeted buildings seem a little farfetched as well?

IMHO, this doesn't really strike me as farfetched at all, the terrorists seem to be extremely intelligent and resourceful, utilizing whatever they can as weapons of terror.

Farfetched is what caught us by surprise in the first place...

My thoughts exactly.
Sure, a Steven Seagal and Jean Claude movie raises the hairs on the back of my neck, but the thought out process of blowing up 20 buildings simultaneously sends chills through my bones!

With 9/11, we all know just how dangerous and intelligent these terrorists are. Why not assume that they could do much worse?

Reminds me of Fight Club...

Not if you read any Tom Clancy. Happened in.... I'm drawing a blank.. Debt of Honor I think - twas how Jack Ryan became president - plane crashed into the Capitol Building.

Renting that many apartments would be difficult but renting 20 hotel rooms I doubt would raise any suspicion, as long as different credit cards were used.

I wasn't trying to make light of this in any way. To me/us, something like this would seem like it would never happen, but to them, this is plausable(sp?). 20 buildings at once is far fetched, maybe 2 or 3, then 2 or 3 more. Hopefully this news will be somewhat of a wake up call to those in charge, that anything is possible.

In all seriousness...

How do you prevent it from happening, WITHOUT infringing, and this isn't meant as sarcastic as it is going to sound, on our precious rights to privacy

I am ashamed to admit I have no idea where the government is with the implementation of CAPPS II, which deals with airline safety but basically is a major assault on our right to privacy. Does a similar plan need to be enacted for hotels? With all the hotel chains, and individual hotels out there, i'd be a huge project to pull off.

Office space? What's to prevent someone from having a package delivered to a place, I know the mailroom of the client I am at this week, does not to any kind of security screeing, Does FEDEX? UPS? This building is 1 block from the Sears Tower, some serious damage could happen.

20 buildings is not outside the realm of possibility, and sadly, I don't see any way of preventing it.

Interesting sidenote to this case....

Padilla been held without ever being charged

Even the most heninous mass murderer gets charged and gets a fairly speedy trial.

Is it right that a US citizen can be held for two years without charges.

The Supreme Court is considering whether the government can hold U-S citizens indefinitely as enemy combatants.

Be interesting to see where this goes...

I think the "farfetched" notion was in reference to the logistics of the actual plan. In other words, it's highly feasible to fly a passenger jet into a skyscraper, but it's damned impossible to blow up a whole apartment complex using the natural gas lines.

One apartment might blow, but then the remaining gas lines would simply become torches after that (not grenades).

If the general idea is to inspire terror into a countries population ... why target important buildings ?

start blowing up random buildings in random cities ... and watch the population panic. The paranoia that there is no method to the madness will send the entire country into disarray and cause general chaos, people will get so scared that they will stop to function properly in society...

When your goal is Terror, you should target the group of people most likely to become scared, and thats not the governement or the military, but the simple man in the street...

9/11 in that view was a brilliant concept, the idea that an ordinary passenger plane could be dropping on your head at any time struck fear into the population causing a major economical crisis....
That is what terrorism is about imho ... causing mayhem and disrupting the normal order of things to achieve your goal.

now do not get me wrong ... I condemn Terrorism as much as the next man, but I am a great fan of strategy, in any form.
I wage war in my mind.