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Terror Networks
Italian Il Giornale: Al Qaeda Threatens to Nuke New York on February 2
2004-01-30
I posted this before - got it off DEBKA

Special Report
December 31, 2003, 12:03 AM (GMT+02:00)
The banner headline spread across the front page of Il Giornale, the respected Milan daily reads:

“Al Qaeda: We will destroy New York within 35 days. Threat on the Internet. Countdown begins.”

The threat was contained in a video clip featured on a web site associated with the fundamentalist terror group. It announced al Qaeda plans to destroy New York in a nuclear blast on February 2. Il Giornale claims the FBI blocked and removed the web site.

The video clip showed three possible scenarios: 1. A bomb or giant fireball from the skies that will cover the metropolis with a radioactive cloud. 2. A storm of radioactive clouds that will topple skyscrapers one by one, along with the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge. 3. An explosion on board a charter aircraft that will cause a radioactive cloud to spread over the city.

The video clip was accompanied by large, red-lettered Arabic captions saying: “If God wills it, the end of America is near.”

DEBKAfile’s counter-terrorism sources say they cannot verify the authorship or gauge the seriousness of the threat because the Internet site is no longer accessible. But the report appeared in a newspaper widely viewed as the flagship of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Such reports - even if not authenticated - tend to contribute to the mounting sense of alarm generated by “Orange Alert” in America and other Western countries. It comes against the backdrop of appeals to New Year revelers to stay away from the traditional New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square, Rome’s St. Peter’s Square, Moscow’s Red Square and London’s Trafalgar Square – or even Disney World and the Las Vegas Strip. All these sites are surrounded by heavy security.

Posted by:Yosemite Sam

#29  Yawn, the department of empty threats strikes again.
But if they where to pull something like this off then within a month the Saudi-oilfields would have an 101 Airborn flag flying over them, we would suddenly find very increased cooperation from both the mullahs and musharef, Assad would come face to face with some pissed of Israeli commandos and various other military units and the 4th ID would be patroling the streets of Mecca. And there aint a godd*mn thing Bin Hiding and his merry band of Jihadis could do about it.
Posted by: Evert Visser   2004-1-31 5:32:50 AM  

#28  "If God wills it is end of America"

This threat has been out there for a while now.

If these bastards do destroy america every country in the middle east is gone by our subs. Now this is a drastic interpertation - America is gone, a smoldering heap. But most doubtful, if they do get lucky and destroy an american city , or a large portion the gloves would def me off. At a minimum tehran, damascus and the north west frontier of pakland would be gone. At the worst all of the above plus the sods and a more through destruction of iran and pakland.
How could we not take at least limited nuclear warfare on known enemies?
The bastards support the terrorist and one or way or another we are going to reckon with this.
Posted by: Dan   2004-1-30 10:32:13 PM  

#27  Such an attack would result in a WWII-style mobilization of human and material resources for war. Over forty days and forty nights, Pakistan's nukes and capacity to deploy nukes will be neutralized first; every Islamic fascist regime, one-person and one-party Islamic dictatorship and Islamic monarchy will be toppled; every radical Islamist madrassah and mosque will be razed; and, as A. Coulter suggested, Muslims everywhere will be introduced to Christianity.
Posted by: Garrison   2004-1-30 9:38:28 PM  

#26  FWIIW my guess is they will hijack multiple oil tankers (fairly easy to do. Tankers get hijacked on a regular basis in south and SE Asia) then target them at docked US ships or where they have limited manouvere room.
Posted by: phil_b   2004-1-30 8:56:53 PM  

#25  al-Qaeda didn't so signal 9/11. Why would they signal any punch?
Posted by: Korora   2004-1-30 8:46:24 PM  

#24  FL - You're dead-right, bubba. Except for his pre-war politics, NBF kicked ass every time he engaged. Sheridan was very smart to stay north and steer clear, heh.

Ship - Huh? I'm sort of the ultimate Forrest-as-warrior fan, but I don't get it, bro... although I like the PBUH sentiment! LOL!

Methinks NBF's best quote (to his cheesedick commanding General, but I can't recall the worm's name right this minute) is always worthy of repeating,

"If you were any part of a man I'd box your jaws and force you to resent it..."

Now THAT deserves Italics AND Caps! Most direct testosterone-laden ain't no two ways about it eyeball-to-eyeball statement ever made, IMHO, heh. NBF just rocked.
Posted by: .com   2004-1-30 8:16:09 PM  

#23  Daddy alwuz said NBF could beat Sheridan to death with JEBs banjo.
Posted by: Fitzhugh Lee   2004-1-30 7:36:36 PM  

#22  Hate to be picky .com but Nathan Bedford Forrest is always all caps or ital. PBUH.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-1-30 7:33:03 PM  

#21  phil_b - LOL! You're right -- it's all so convenient... as if, uh, as if Allah hisownself wuz setting them up, heh.

Perhaps we do what Nathan Bedford Forrest did at Bryce's Crossroads - split in half and attack in both directions! I'd say we could take, and hold, the Saudi bit with the Mississippi Nat'l Guard. D'ya think it might take the 'Bama Boyz to take the Mad Mullah's toys away from them? Just think of it as facing a buncha Faisals. All talk and all wrong. LOL!
Posted by: .com   2004-1-30 7:15:56 PM  

#20  Nothing's 100% certain, of course - particularly not when you're dealing with wingnuts - but when during the Baader-Meinhof gang terrorist bombings in Germany in the early 1970's, I noticed that they didn't warn anyone - they just bombed. Same with some other major bombings. (Variation: call in a warning, but just a minute or so before the bomb goes off so the people in the building will be terrorized before they die.)

Generally speaking, if you send a warning it's either a prank and there's no bomb or there is a bomb, but you don't want to kill people - yet. We're long past that with these clowns.

As I said, nothing's 100% certain, but I'd be surprised if these clowns even tried to deliver.

And Allah help them and their ilk if they do - because no one else will.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2004-1-30 6:05:45 PM  

#19  .com, Iran's oil fields are also conveniently located in one small area adjacent to Iraq and also with a Shia arab majority.

You are an armoured division in Southern Iraq. Do you turn right, or do you turn left? Tough choice!
Posted by: phil_b   2004-1-30 5:40:58 PM  

#18  Maybe I should show this to my wife so she can convince me to take Monday off.
Posted by: Tibor   2004-1-30 5:31:58 PM  

#17  "If God wills it is end of America"

If nothing happens I wonder if they will infer that God is on America's side and that dead Jihadis will not get 72 virgins, instead they will be one of the 72 virgins awarded to dead American soldiers and Marines.
Posted by: JFM   2004-1-30 3:53:47 PM  

#16  I doubt this is anything but talk, which is cheap.

But if they DO nuke NY, the glove would definitely come off of the steel fist - we probably wouldn't actually nuke Riyadh or Mecca/Medina, although Salafist/Wahhabist clerics would probably become an endangered species in short order. The Saudi royal family would be out on their collective ear, and the Iranian Ayatollahs would get the "more in sorrow than in anger" speech while we violently dismantle their sick government. Pakistan would deliver every warhead, nuke scientist and design team they have or face the consequences.
Posted by: mojo   2004-1-30 3:29:50 PM  

#15  Correct. Decimate means to lose one out of ten - hence the 'deci'. I reckon teach done learned us up real good like.
Posted by: Anonymous   2004-1-30 3:24:27 PM  

#14  Nice how these dumbasses say that they're going to "destroy" New York in thirty five days, yet cover their collective asses by saying "if God wills it".

You guys gonna deliver or not?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-1-30 2:56:48 PM  

#13  RC going Roman may give you a short term pleasure but that's a lot of salt... consider the long term effect on the aquifer. I say we sic the Jehovah's Witness's on them on down to the 12th generation.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-1-30 2:42:36 PM  

#12  I'm not sure what would happen, but it would be advisable not to give any speeches about how Islam is a religion of peace.
(unless you feel like being attacked by an angry mob)
Posted by: TS   2004-1-30 2:39:16 PM  

#11  I reckon Carthage would be a better example. Right now the way I feel the Romans seem overly compassionate to me.
Posted by: whitecollar redneck   2004-1-30 2:37:11 PM  

#10  I guess arresting the perpetrators and bringing the full extent of the law down on their heads would be out.

Not to be a nit picker RC, but that decimate thing was a form of dicipline for cowardice in battle. Every 10th man was sent to the Ellysian(?) fields. Saw it on the History channel while faisel was watching the Spice channel.
Posted by: Lucky   2004-1-30 2:32:59 PM  

#9  Redneck, I'd rather see us go Roman on them than go Medieval. The Romans invented the word "decimation" for a reason, after all.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-1-30 2:22:31 PM  

#8  Another hit and we would go medieval. Although with 21st century technology. People forget what we are capable of if we get really pissed off. Fortunately for them, we're not really pissed off ... yet.
Posted by: whitecollar redneck   2004-1-30 2:17:06 PM  

#7  Pakistan goes away. End of story.
Posted by: Hiryu   2004-1-30 2:07:13 PM  

#6  Dar - there's this stolen 40km wide strip along the Eastern coast of Saudi Arabia that provides the funding for the vast majority of the terror in the world and removing it from the hands of turbans of any stripe would stop the insanity dead in its tracks in 90 days...

Cuz then they'd only have drug-smuggling to support the Religion of Peace™.
Posted by: .com   2004-1-30 1:43:19 PM  

#5  And if we aren't destroyed, what's Allah saying? Somehow I don't think they'd listen.
Posted by: Anonymous2U   2004-1-30 1:36:04 PM  

#4  Yosemite: yep....Mecca: the worlds largest glass top parking lot. The gloves would be off for sure, but it would mostly be under the table. We wouldn't want to give the appearence of going indiscriminantly wild.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2004-1-30 1:27:18 PM  

#3  I've always thought holding the destruction of the black stone in Mecca would have some pull
Posted by: Yosemite Sam   2004-1-30 1:20:47 PM  

#2  Riyadh, for starts.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-1-30 1:16:00 PM  

#1  While doubtful they could pull this off, I am curious what Rantburgers think we would do in retaliation if Al-Q did succeed in attacking a major US city with WMDs. What more could we do to destroy Al-Q that we're not doing already? Would there be an appropriate target for us to respond in kind with WMDs?
Posted by: Dar   2004-1-30 1:02:38 PM  

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