WASHINGTON — The FBI and Homeland Security have issued a nationwide warning about al-Qaida threats to small airplanes, just days before the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Authorities say there is no specific or credible terrorist threat for the 10-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. But they have stepped up security nationwide as a precaution.
According to a five-page law enforcement bulletin issued Friday, as recently as early this year, al-Qaida was considering ways to attack airplanes.The alert, issued ahead of the summer’s last busy travel weekend, said terrorists have considered renting private planes and loading them with explosives.
[...] The bulletin also says al-Qaida would like to use sympathetic Westerners to get flight training, then get them to become flight instructors.
While we’re on the subject of terrorist threats, let’s not forget that it’s not just middle-eastern, Islamic fundamentalists of al Qaeda that we need to worry about. Our very own home-grown anti-government, anti-tax, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-choice domestic terrorist element occasionally bubbles to the surface as well:
- 01/08/11: Jared Lee Loughner, Tucson, AZ
- 02/18/10: Andrew Stack, Austin, TX (small airplane!)
- 11/05/09: Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, Ft. Hood, TX
- 06/10/09: James W. Von Brunn, Washington DC
- 05/31/09: Scott Roeder, Wichita, KS
- 04/19/95: Timothy McVeigh, Oklahoma City for (04/19/93, Waco, TX)
Terrorists, whether domestic or otherwise, use people as symbols and the deaths of others as their political / religious / philosophical statement.
