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| San Diego school crisis plan is found on disk in Iraq | |
| 2004-09-30 | |
| WTF? Not sure what to make of this.....EFL A man arrested by U.S. authorities in Iraq had a computer disk in his possession containing a public report downloaded from a U.S. Department of Education Web site on crisis planning in school districts, including San Diego Unified. The man was described as an Iraqi national with connections to terrorism and the insurgency that is fighting U.S. forces in Iraq. Officials in San Diego said the man's intentions were unknown. San Diego law enforcement officials said there was no indication of any terrorist plot against schools in San Diego or elsewhere in the country.
Nothing to see here. Go about your business The disk contained a document entitled "Practical Information on Crisis Planning, A Guide for Schools and Communities." The 50-plus page document, published in May 2003 by the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, is available to the public on the U.S. Department of Education's Web site, said San Diego District spokeswoman Peri Lynn Turnbull. FBI officials visited the office of district Superintendent Alan Bersin Friday to inform him, Turnbull said. Because there was no indication that terrorists were targeting any schools, in San Diego or elsewhere, the district informed the school police department, but decided not to notify schools and parents. "We certainly did not want to create any unnecessary panic in our community," Turnbull said. The FBI said because there was no specific threat, that was the appropriate response. "The superintendent was alerted by the FBI that there were no direct threats to the district or any San Diego school and that by our maintaining our same level of care and concern that our schools would be safe," Turnbull said. Dan Dzwilewski, head of the FBI office in San Diego, said there is no reason for alarm. "We don't know the intention of the person that had this material," Dzwilewski said. "But the disk contained absolutely no threat information. It's only out of an abundance of caution — because it was discovered in Iraq — that we shared this with another public agency." | |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #18 Here is the way I see it - Where are elections held? Schools in most cases. What better way to shock and terrorize us... bomb or take over schools (with kids in there) the day BEFORE the election. Think about it. We need to secure the schools BEFORE election day! |
| Posted by: Theelt Sheelt9187 2004-10-01 12:43:00 PM |
| #17 Personally, I think this ties in nicely with the recent reports of AQ working with US gangs. Cross the border, get these gang members enrolled in a school - combine that with some reconstruction projects and you have yourself a ghoulish display worthy of prime time on Muslim TV. If it turns out that any of these gang members enrolled in schools - I'd consider this option a distinct possiblity. |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-09-30 4:00:50 PM |
| #16 There's also the issue of whether normal SWAT tactics are inadequate to a Beslan-type situation. We had an article by a former SEAL on this point here at the 'Burg a few weeks back. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-09-30 2:12:24 PM |
| #15 There's several sites that will diagram exactly how LE will respond to an incident at a school. or municipal building. Not hard to find. San Diego would be an appropriate target in that it's close to the border...there's water access. The schools tend to be layed out ranch style, rather than multi story, open spaces for observation/fields of fire. Good choice. |
| Posted by: Anonymous6700 2004-09-30 1:22:50 PM |
| #14 I dont think Al-Q would have any problems driving a bunch of terrorist and a truckload of weapons and explosives across the Mexican border to San Diego - particulary if they are willing to shoot to kill any border patrol officer who approaches them. And isn't San Diego a 'illegal alien' sainctuary where they law enforcement can't even ask for citizenship? And, how would SWAT or law enforcement handle the taking of hostages and wiring the school with explosives? This isn't exactly like colombine where you have an active shooter but a hostage situation where they are willing to use the hostages as human shields for windows. That said this sounds like it was 'general' information and not specific plans, school layouts, etc... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-09-30 1:15:43 PM |
| #13 Post Columbine...LE departments developed tactics against an "active shooter". In some jurisdictions they supply either a school resource officer (some armed/some not), deputy sheriff/PD. Still, it's difficult to get them to shoot. The response remains: call in for back-up. SWAT, at least in larger cities, can take as long as 90 min to arrive. Few SWAT travel with their gear, most meet at a single location, suit up and then make their way to the incident. By that time, in an active shooter scenario, if the mission is to kill folks, the terrorist will keep killing until they run out of bullets or bombs. A tough situation. In the Russian school action, the terrorists knew that they would be killed once the decision was made to move. In the U.S. we've yet to be tested on that matter. Hopefully we won't. |
| Posted by: Anonymous6700 2004-09-30 1:01:34 PM |
| #12 SD has very good SWAT for the SDPD and Sheriff's office. Also, armed police have been stationed on each campus every school day since the Santana High (my daughter was almost shot in that) shooting. No match though for a coordinated attack by multiple attackers. I agree with those above that it was probably DL'd as an example to reference, but they are plotting and probing |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-09-30 12:53:29 PM |
| #11 The San Diego Police do indeed have a Special Weapons And Tactics team. And so do the Sheriff's Department as do nearly every other city and suburb in San Diego County. There would be a tremendous amount of highly trained law enforcement on the scene long before the military was called in. And if the military was called in, don’t forget that in addition to the Marine and Naval bases, this is where the SEALS and SWCC train and where the Naval Special Warfare Command is, etc., etc. |
| Posted by: Tobacconist 2004-09-30 12:50:47 PM |
| #10 Az.schools have an armed deputy shiereff on duty at all campuses state wide.Might be a surprise for an asshat.Also most everyone I know has a weapon.Also Gila county SO has a very well trained/equipted SWAT team. |
| Posted by: Raptor 2004-09-30 12:46:25 PM |
| #9 It wouldn't surprise me. I remember seeing something back in early '02 about finding draft plans at an al-Qaeda training camp for attacking all of the school buses in a small- to medium-sized American town. I went Googling for it this morning, but all I could find was this indirect reference, which appears to have come out of some security consultant's press release, and some "warnings" on Steve Quayle's whack-job "intelligence" site. Anyone have a better link (or a better memory) than me? |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-09-30 12:38:13 PM |
| #8 AQ, other terrorist groups and the criminal element have conducted "data mining" using the computer since the internet came on-line. Want to find out about the security status/capability of DoD forces, HLS or other gov't security agency...just access the GAO reports. We put more info on line that any other country. Part of being an informed public that thursts for knowledge. Then again...you can drown in a tea cup of water. |
| Posted by: Anonymous6700 2004-09-30 12:13:51 PM |
| #7 might want to take a look at the construction workers doing renovations in our schools. AQ is not very creative in using new ideas. |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-09-30 12:06:22 PM |
| #6 Comment #4 is probably close to the mark. The terrorist outfit is gathering data for planning for future ops. Remember that the Beslan school takeover had insiders storing materiel and weapons in the school in summer, with front people being school workers. The American public needs to know that little finds like this in Iraq can avert tragedies at US schools. This is WAR. Thanks for finding the article, Frank. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-09-30 12:05:10 PM |
| #5 You know, I was just about to make a joke about how they better plan for the students who carry guns to school...and then I remembered about the comments how they are working in conjunction with the gangs from El Salvador. eek, that's a bit frightening. What a incredibly stupid comment from the police chief. |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-09-30 11:55:02 AM |
| #4 This probably has little to do with San Diego schools. The terrorist probably used Google to search for information on school security plans and the online info for San Diego schools best met his needs. |
| Posted by: Anonymous5032 2004-09-30 11:49:23 AM |
| #3 "The man was described as an Iraqi national with connections to terrorism and the insurgency that is fighting U.S. forces in Iraq." Is that all? Sheesh! What's all the worry? "Officials in San Diego said the man’s intentions were unknown ." Maybe he just likes studying school district safety plans, for fun and personal enjoyment. Some people do, you know. "San Diego law enforcement officials said there was no indication of any terrorist plot against schools in San Diego or elsewhere in the country. " Since terrorist plots are clandestine, that would make sense. "Indications" of the same would be pretty much non-existant, right? Good thing they found that. No doubt the Terror-Facists are looking over US school safety protocols so they can plan something bad. Something really bad. It's clear the Terror-Facists want to provoke war. But why? Anway, sure glad George W. Bush is president, and that the governor of California is Arnold Swarzenager instead of the dimwit Dems. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-09-30 11:40:55 AM |
| #2 We don’t know the intention of the person that had this material," Dzwilewski said. "But the disk contained absolutely no threat information. It’s only out of an abundance of caution – because it was discovered in Iraq – that we shared this with another public agency." Oceana is not a war with Eurasia. Oceana has never been at war with Eurasia. Nothing to see here... Oh heck, yall know the rest. What bothers me is the assumption that if we get a realistic picture of the enemys intentions there will be a krystalnacht directed at the |
| Posted by: N Guard 2004-09-30 11:20:40 AM |
| #1 If they expect a school massacre like they had in Russia they're picking the wrong city. In Russia it took time for the special troops to arrive. In San Diego we have a major naval base, two marine bases, and if there are no SWAT units (probably is, but I don't know) I can guarantee there are some in nearby LA (I saw it in a movie). You'd have a whole lot of shit falling on you very fast if you pulled something in Southern California. Its also unlikely you'd get enough jihadists in, and have the cooperation of local corrupt authorities. If they were thinking of something in San Diego it would have to be a very different plan. And that's not even mentioning what the site of dead American schoolkids would do to American willingness to let our marines go berserk on Fallujia. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2004-09-30 11:14:14 AM |