Al-Qaeda plans Mumbai-style attacks on the U.S. -- SOON!

[Runcible]

From http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/09/lates ... istan.html :

Intelligence and law enforcement authorities in the US and Europe said the threat information is based on the interrogation of a suspected German terrorist allegedly captured on his way to Europe in late summer and now being held at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.
US law enforcement officials say they have been told the terrorists were planning a series of "Mumbai-style" commando raids on what were termed "economic or soft" targets in the countries.

For those of you who don't remember, a mere ten members of the (Islamic) Lashkar-e-Taiba wreaked absolutely havoc in one of India's largest cities, killing almost two hundred people and wounding another 300. They went into an urban center, heavily armed, and just mowed people down. The city police lacked the ability to coordinate its efforts and individual officers hunkered down rather than engage.

Being able to act in the face of a Mumbai-like attack is one big reason I carry a concealed weapon. If I die at least I'll die throwing lead back at them.

Carry big.

[tursiops]

I think if I wanted "soft targets" I'd stay away from the DC metro area, or any capital city, and head to a mid-size town in the mid-west. Out of curiosity, are there areas around here you'd categorize as "soft?"

[CowboyT]

Yes, several:

1.) All of Washington, DC that doesn't have armed G-men guards as you walk in.
2.) Virtually all of Maryland, for the same reason as DC.
3.) Any K-12 school in Virginia.
4.) Almost any university in Virginia, including George Mason University.
5.) Any other place in VA that has a "no firearms" policy, like Outback Steakhouse restaurants.

So yep, we've got a bunch of "soft" targets in the DC Metro Area.

[Runcible]

Absolutely, the universities in almost every state. One halfwit emotional cripple with a .22 and a 9mm killed 32 smart young people at Virginia Tech a few years ago. The students were sitting ducks - they had no idea what was happening.

The moral narcissism of the academic left compels them to recruit foreign Muslim students, and so America's universities are teeming with potential jihadists. If just 10% are willing to participate in Mumbai-style terror attacks on large state universities, we could be looking at thousands of dead.

[jaywade]

well lets pray these fools are not crazy/brave/stupid enough to try this anywhere here in Va, Dc seems like that would be the place or maybe new york

[Runcible]

Neal Stephenson wrote a novel called "The Cobweb" about a scenario a bit like this, 15 years ago, and he set it in Iowa: http://amzn.to/adDEXn

[ainokea]

Holy crap, a Neal Stephenson novel that I haven't read or even heard about? I thought I was a Stephenson fan... guess I need to pick up a new book asap.

[Mindflayer]

Someone will one day target a school for religious or political reasons and kill many, many children. This may be anathema to many politically motivated groups but I predict those killing in the name of their faith will do something this heinous. The amount of hate being spewed by madmen that, in truth, would find reason to spew hate no matter their faith or religion, seems to only be escalating.

Interesting that you bring this up since it was the topic of discussion over drinks with co-workers and vendor tonight. The Canadian in the group said he saw the Mumbai attacks as a perfect reason to be armed.

[Diomed]

A Bombay-style attack in this country would almost certainly be a dead end. Unless they had a lot of men with a lot of firepower (explosives, not really even guns) moving very quickly and efficiently, they'd get taken down in pretty short order by any half-competent police department. The US is not India.

A Beslan-style attack is more likely to produce huge casualty numbers, especially if executed in multiple locations simultaneously. Schools in this country are impressively easy targets that will produce ghastly body counts of children, which will inflame passions even more than dropping some buildings in NYC.

[zephyp]

You want a soft target in DC...take a look anyplace on the beltway, 395, 270, or 66 during rush hour. Much havoc could be wreaked and an incident would paralyze the region for a long time. Just think how long it would take to reopen something like the beltway in the Tysons area if terrorists shot up and destroyed a couple hundred vehicles...oh, and for those of you thinking yeah right, gun ships could be called in. Ok, and what would they shoot at. And, think about how long it would take enough reaction force to get there to do any good. Remember, most of these people dont care about dying...only killing us.

[TheGodfather]

It's all ok if several hundred citizens die. Obama has full confidence that America can absorb an attack and move on with hope.

[chfaunce]

Yes, several:


5.) Any other place in VA that has a "no firearms" policy, like Outback Steakhouse restaurants.

I'm kinda suprised that people are still eating at Outback. I mean, yeah, the Bloomin' Onion is ok, but everything else is kind of meh. Sure, it's an easy dinnner when I'm feeling lazy and will settle for a mediocre cut of meat, but ALWAYS do curbside takeaway. The food is not worth the wait, otherwise. Believe me, it's not the theat of the Durka Durkas that's keeping me out of Outcrack.

For that matter, it's not the fear of extremists that keeps me from doing a lot of things. Now back to the scary scary very scary already in progress

[OakRidgeStars]

Simple. Just follow the signs to your nearest terrorist target:

[VBshooter]

With the way Holder,Obama and certain other elected buttwipes act it wouldn't surprise me if they provided maps, and then arranged for milk and cookies to be served while the BG's wait for their US government provided ride home...

[Runcible]

This is a pretty good article about how the Obama Administration has addressed Pakistani leadership on the terrorism issue: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews

It seems Obama has communicated to Pakistan that if there's a major strike inside the U.S. that originates in Pakistan, all bets are off and the U.S. military will retaliate in force within Pakistan.