Sensible Erection | The Man Who Conned The Pentagon

Monday, 21 December 2009

quote [ One man's claims about secret al-Qaida messages sent via television led American officials to raise terror-alert levels and cancel a number of flights. But those claims turned out to be bogus. He said they were sort of embedded within the digital feed from Al Jazeera, so - and which is potentially technically possible, of course ]

code orange? code bullshit.

[by vahid@6:07amGMT] [+7 Interesting]

Comments

Krutz said @ 6:12am GMT on 21st Dec [Score:5 Insightful]
Just one man?

You're leaving out Ahmed Chalabi, just about every defense contractor, Dick Cheney, most of the Bush Administration, etc.

Singling out this one guy is kind of unfair.

vahid said @ 6:16am GMT on 21st Dec
those guys are all old news.

lifeisflimsy said @ 6:39am GMT on 21st Dec
"Mr. ROSTON: It's always so hard. You know, I wrote a book about Ben Ahmad Chalabi and it's sort of hard to figure out why he was believed so much. I think it's mainly because he offered an easy solution. If you go to somebody in government and say, listen, I've got a secret technology that can solve your terror problems right now and tell you exactly what al-Qaida's thinking, you know, a lot of people will say, well, I can't ignore that. That sounds great. That sounds perfect. That's what I think it was."

sacrelicious said @ 6:37am GMT on 21st Dec
I heard al qaida was transmitting messages in peoples fillings. everyone should wear tinfoil hats so that we'll know that those who aren't are probably terrorists.

Binaryslyder said @ 6:40am GMT on 21st Dec
You know, when I hear about stuff like this it makes me cringe even more when I think about "black ops" and "black sights."

I remember watching the Cheney on TV when he was speaking on Meet the Press when he said his infamous "shadows" comments:

"We’ve got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies"

Now, remember the context. This was said five days after 9/11. When my family and I heard this, my dad blurted out "your goddamn right! Let's get this over with, quick and dirty."

I'm ashamed to say that at the time, I agreed. Thinking back to then, and realizing that "sources available to the intelligence community" was at worst, a gambling addict with good grift, I don't understand how Cheney can show his face in public anymore.

incpenners said @ 2:35pm GMT on 21st Dec
Clearly Cheney's remarks were undermined by all of the attacks on the US in the intervening years.

Krutz said @ 3:29pm GMT on 21st Dec
Indeed, and how terrorism the world over dropped after he and George started invading places that had never had suicide bombings until U.S. troops showed up. Tell me, what did Iraq have to do with a terrorist attack on America again?

Nothing? Oh.

Ah, well. At least Halliburton and Blackwater got some money out of the deal. Those poor guys deserve it.

Anyway, I have a rock in my pocket that keeps tigers away. Would you like to buy it?

ring riot said @ 4:11pm GMT on 21st Dec [Score:1 Underrated]
Yes. Yes, they were.

His remarks were, of course, first undermined by the fact that the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil in its history happened on his watch - but since you're talking about after that massive failure:

Weeks after 9/11, the anthrax attacks in the U.S. followed that, killing 5 and infecting 17 (a 2004 study showed that the number of infected was, in fact, closer to 68).

Failed to stop those. 5 dead, 17 - 68 infected.

In December of 2001, there was Richard Reid, of course, the "shoe-bomber" and member of Al Qaeda - he managed to get on a plane and in mid-flight tried light his shoes. If it weren't for common flight attendants and passengers who saw him in the process, something close to PanAm 103 would probably have occurred.

Failed to stop that one.

In 2002, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, an Egyptian national, opened fire on the El Al ticket counter in Los Angeles International Airport, killing two and wounding four - he was shot dead by airport security personnel. Investigators found that his objective in the shooting was to "influence foreign policy and to die as a martyr".

Failed to stop that attack. Two dead, 4 wounded there.

In the fall of 2002, there were the D.C. snipers, where ten people in the Washington, D.C. area were killed and three others were injured. John Allen added Muhammad to his name after joining Islam and trained his adopted son, Lee Malvo to shoot sniper style.

Failed to stop those attacks. Ten dead, 3 wounded there.

In 2006, Mohammed Taheri-azar turned himself in to authorities - after intentionally striking and wounding nine students with his rented SUV at the University of North Carolina. Taheri-azar said he wanted to "follow in the footsteps of one of my role models, Mohammad Atta, one of the 9-11 hijackers." He told investigators that he wanted to "avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world." He pled guilty to nine counts of attempted first-degree murder in 2008.

Didn't stop that one.

In July of 2006, Naveed Afzal Haq went on a rampage at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. He opened fire with two semiautomatic pistols, killing a woman and wounding five more women in the Federation’s office spaces. Haq told police: "I’m upset at your foreign policy. These are Jews and I am tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East." He got into the church by putting a gun to the head of a 13-year old girl.

Failed there. 1 dead, 5 wounded.

In February, 2007, at the Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City, Sulejman Talovic killed five people and wounded five others. One source reported that the phrase “Allahu Akbar” could be heard twice on the raw footage of the attack provided by a TV station.

Failed on that one, too. 5 dead, 5 wounded.

So - that's seven terrorist attacks on U.S. soil on Bush and Cheney's watch, not including 9/11 of course, which would make it eight.

Oh, and considering that Nidal Hasan warned a roomful of senior Army physicians in 2007 that to avoid "adverse events," the military should let Muslim soldiers be released as conscientious objectors instead of fighting in wars against other Muslims - and that there were warnings about Hasan from Walter Read sent to officials at Fort Hood under the previous administration, in 2007, as well - that were never put into his file - using your logic, we can add Hasan to that list as well.

Failed there, too. 13 dead.

So - yes, Cheney's "remarks were undermined by all of the attacks on the U.S. in the intervening years" - from all of those, but mostly by 9/11.

lilmookieesquire said @ 7:29pm GMT on 24th Dec
Ya. Farmer Brown will come back. Please. Have more apples.

fz75 said @ 9:05am GMT on 21st Dec
They should code it "brown" for bullshit,
in fact the whole code thingy is bullshit anyway.

Eternal said @ 1:07pm GMT on 21st Dec
Yea they called Code Orange as I was getting on an airplane yestermorning. Happened to be assembling a cellphone too, rofl.

Krutz said @ 4:10pm GMT on 21st Dec
I don't think they have any other recordings at the airport other than the one for 'orange,' anyway.