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Manual of Terror
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan , Feb. 1 The instructions are simple but chilling: Attack sites with "high human intensity" like skyscrapers, nuclear plants and football stadiums. Pick targets of "sentimental value" like the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower. That's some of the advice to members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda fighters on the best ways to kill thousands of people and spread fear in the United States and Europe. It's contained contained in the 11-volume "Manual of Afghan Jihad."
It also suggests attacks on Jewish organizations and large gatherings of Jews to cause as many deaths as possible, as well as the assassination of prominent figures in Arab nations.
The nation should remain on a "very high state of alert for some time," Mueller said, adding that there could be al Qaeda operatives hidden in the United States. "Do I know for sure? I believe there are, but I cannot say for sure," he said Thursday.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials have repeated calls for vigilance in recent days, warning that large terror attacks could still take place. Documents found in Afghanistan have included diagrams of American nuclear power plants, intelligence officials have said.
5,000-Page Manual of Terror
The two-page chapter on foreign operations was found as The Associated Press conducted an exhaustive translation of the 5,000-page manual.
The manual was produced in Arabic by al Qaeda's training department before the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States. It was obtained by AP from a former Afghan resistance fighter, who got it from a disaffected al Qaeda member in Afghanistan.
"There must be plans in place for hitting buildings with high human intensity like skyscrapers, ports, airports, nuclear power plants and places where large numbers of people gather like football grounds," the chapter said. It also recommended major public gatherings such as Christmas celebrations.
The manual said special units should work in areas with large Jewish communities. "In every country, we should hit their organizations, institutions, clubs and hospitals," it reads. "The targets must be identified, carefully chosen and include their largest gatherings so that any strike should cause thousands of deaths."
"As for Arab nations, operations should expand to include the assassination of influential and effective personalities," it said.
Bin Laden, a Saudi exile, opposes Saudi Arabia's rulers for allowing U.S. troops to be based in the country. Also, Egyptian Islamic militants who are now part of al Qaeda have killed or tried to kill several politicians and intellectuals in Egypt in their lengthy campaign to overthrow that country's government.
Foreshadowing Sept. 11
The chapter, entitled "External Pressure," reads like a blueprint for the Sept. 11 attacks, in which four hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
U.S. officials believe the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was to have struck a target in Washington, D.C., but crashed after passengers and crew members fought the hijackers.
"The strikes must be strong and have a wide impact on the population of that nation," the essay said. "Four targets must be simultaneously hit in any of those nations so that the government there knows that we are serious."
The chapter did not elaborate on ways to attack the targets, nor did it give any indication that specific operations were in the works.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week alerted nuclear power plants that terrorists may be planning an attack on a reactor using a hijacked airliner. The alert said an al Qaeda operative claimed "the attack was already planned." However, an FBI official said Thursday that the information, after being evaluated, was deemed not credible.
The Manual of Afghan Jihad was dedicated to bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam, a prominent Palestinian killed during the 1979-89 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The writing style strongly suggests that it was written by an Egyptian.
Several members of bin Laden's inner circle in al Qaeda are known to be Egyptians. The 19 known hijackers on Sept. 11 were believed to have been led by an Egyptian, Mohamed Atta.
Advice on Punishing Traitors
In other chapters, the manual offers advice on how to raise funds for covert operations through extortion, blackmail and kidnappings for ransom.
To cover the high cost of maintaining a cell, it advises creating a business to generate a regular income. Members of a cell in a country where an attack is planned shouldn't exceed seven and mustn't know each other. Only the leader of the operation should know them, it says.
Another chapter details the punishment reserved for members found to have betrayed colleagues to authorities or stolen money from the group.
"A senior member who betrays his brothers to the regime where they live should be punished in such a way that he would desire death for the rest of his days," says the manual. "But if a brother is killed as a result of his betrayal, then he must be killed to make an example of him."
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Democrats Beat The Bushes For Another Terrorist Attack
BACK BEFORE the election, Democrats were indignant that President Bush was making them vote on an important issue of national security in an election year. Apparently, they got over their scruples. By the end of the year, every prospective Democratic presidential candidate was leering over the prospect of another terrorist attack to use as political fodder against Bush. Assailing Bush for not doing enough to prevent terrorism evidently won out over their other ideas for attacking Bush, such as Whitewater, sexual harassment and presidential pardons.
Leading the way was Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who said: "It's time for us, without regard to party, to say what every American knows – Washington is not doing enough to make America safe." Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said the Bush administration had failed to make "the preparations necessary to properly deal with an obvious problem of growing terror and the threat at home." Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said: "This administration has been slow and inadequate in the response to the terrorist threat here at home."
Has there been another terrorist attack I'm unaware of? There was the shooting at the El Al counter at the Los Angeles airport and the sniper attacks. Are Democrats claiming they could have done a better job? They won't even admit that the perpetrators of those attacks were Muslims. So by liberals' count, there hasn't been a single act of domestic terrorism since 9-11.
The Democrats must have been anticipating another terrorist attack in late December and wanted their warnings duly placed on the record. The Bush administration has to give these knuckleheads regular briefings on national security. How Clintonian to use the threat of a terrorist incident for political advantage. According to The New York Times, Clinton "is in regular touch with some of the presidential contenders, particularly Mr. Edwards." To give credit where credit is due, Edwards boasted he had decided to attack Bush on domestic security all on his own.
This is a country virtually designed for terrorist attacks and yet there has not been a second major terrorist act since 9-11. We are a big multicultural society full of densely packed cities with large foreign-born populations and lots of illegal immigrants. Angry primitives are relentlessly staging raids on our border, which is defended by a hapless bunch of incompetents at the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani used to brag about refusing to cooperate with the INS in turning over illegal immigrants. In Manhattan, he was considered an avenging law-and-order brute. Giuliani's successor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, believes the greatest threat to public safety comes from passive smoke.
Refusing to conceptualize the idea that terrorists are often foreign-born, liberals take umbrage at the idea of protecting the country at the point of its greatest vulnerability. Welcoming illegal immigrants is treated like a friendly neighbor program. Democrats are reduced to making a series of baseless charges while ignoring the real issues because the real issues would be a threat to their voter base.
The nation's political ethos demands that we pretend we don't suspect Egyptian immigrant Hesham Mohamed Hadayet any more than Al Gore. The rights of the accused trump the rights of the law-abiding. Special-interest groups defend the right of predators to move freely in the general population. In New York City, you can even rape and brutalize a jogger in Central Park and be declared "innocent" a decade later if the district attorney happens to be angling for a good obituary in The New York Times.
It's safe to assume Attorney General John Ashcroft isn't getting a lot of help. But he has calmly persisted in the face of caterwauling idiots. The hundreds – hundreds – of terrorist attacks the Bush administration has prevented since 9-11 don't make headlines. In a small news item last week, the government announced in a legal brief that interrogations of enemy combatants have "helped to thwart an estimated 100 or more attacks against the United States and its interests since Sept. 11, 2001."
The Department of Justice has disrupted terrorist cells in Buffalo, Portland and Detroit. It has won convictions or guilty pleas from about 100 people in terrorism-related crimes. Almost 500 potential terrorists have been deported. The arrest of a former roommate of two 9-11 hijackers led to 40 more arrests in a visa fraud scheme. Over 200 airport workers in the Washington, D.C., New York City and Dallas airports have been arrested for document and immigration fraud. At the Dallas and Newark airports, scores of workers were charged with alarming schemes to obtain access to high-security areas of the airports.
The war isn't over, and it won't be until the malarial swamps are completely drained – something else the Democrats oppose. But whatever happens tomorrow or the next day, it is worth reflecting on the fact that there hasn't been anything approaching the 9-11 attack for 16 months now. That's not a bet many people would have taken on Sept. 12, 2001.
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