FBI "General Threat" of Terror Attacks- Anything more specific?

Factual Questions
1

From Drudge Report, here is the “general threat” Bush was talking about last night:

**http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/skyfall.htm
For Immediate Release
October 11, 2001
Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office

Certain information, while not specific as to target, gives the government reason to believe that there may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against U.S. interests overseas over the next several days. The FBI has again alerted all local law enforcement to be on the highest alert and we call on all people to immediately notify the FBI and local law enforcement of any unusual or suspicious activity. **

Anyone have any ideas of more specifics? Or do you think this is a “cover our ass” statement issued by the FBI?

2

Mostly it’s a ‘cover our ass’ situation. If the FBI had details on an impending attack one would hope they’d take specific steps to prevent it (arrest any suspects, increase security at a suspected target, etc.).

Most analysis I’ve seen has said that since the attacks on 9/11 faith in the CIA and FBI is very low. For what it’s worth the FBI is doing this to try and show it is doing what it can. The analysis also said that this warning isn’t the result of any one, specific thing but rather is a sense of things when looking at the big picture.

For my part I believe the FBI is doing all it can but it can’t be an easy job. We live in a big country and we still have civil rights the FBI has to observe. Were we living in, say, Iraq I imagine anyone who even looked funny would be tossed forthwith into a prison and left to rot regardless of whether or not they were really a threat.

3

In all fairness to these agencies, perhaps they are not disclosing specifics because they have info. that may enable them to surveil and catch the “evil-doers.” Suppose they said that Hoover Dam is targeted and they tell everyone to stay away. Guess who else will stay away? For a while, anyway. The vague alert does not bother me. FWIW

4

Surely you’re not suggesting the FBI would knowingly use all the citizens in danger from the collapse of the Hoover Dam as ‘bait’ for terrorist are you?

5

No, you mad genius, you.

They’re moving quietly, so as not to frighten them off.

That’s why it’s called a covert operation.

Covert as in “secret”.

Get it? :rolleyes:

6

At the risk of hijacking this thread, wouldn’t blowing up Hoover Dam be a pretty big task? That’s a lot of concrete out there.

I suppose Edward Abbey would be happy however.

7

Here is a 1997 article about concerns about the Hoover Dam: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1997/Apr-24-Thu-1997/news/5261682.html

8

The patient of a doctor my wife works with has an uncle in the CIA (yeah I know, friend of a friend of a friend). The uncle in the CIA urged the doctor to take her kids and leave NYC this weekend and that the city is “being prepared”.

Now, whether that means being prepared in the boy scout sense or being prepared in the Thanksgiving turkey sense I’m not sure of.

9

Hmm. It is my understanding that most people in certain intel agencies are not supposed to disclose their employer(s). Merely an observation.

10

http://www.cia.gov/cia/dst/community.html

I suppose most aren’t, but some do. I suppose if I had a niece in a city that was about to be bombed, or whatever, I might be tempted to “break cover” and encourage her to leave.

That being said, this doctor did take her kids and leave town.

11

Hey, Sporkboy,
My Random House sees it this way:

sarcasm n. 2. an ironical gibe.

:rolleyes:, indeed.

12

Breaking news:

Can’t vouch for the veracity. I just heard on the radio here in the UK that GCHQ, British Intelligence’s code-breaking station, have deciphered a message in Bin Ladens video.

When the video is played backwards it says: “Sleepers awake, now is the time to come forward with your faith”.

Apparently this is why the FBI issued their warning. They think its possible that something could happen this weekend.

As I say, this was just a story on the radio and they didn’t make too big a thing over it so maybe its wrong.

13

I would think that if the FBI had more specifics, they’d be making arrests instead of issuing warnings.

Just a thought.

14

I grew up in DC, I knew plenty of people with parents in the CIA. It was no big secret. Not everyone in the CIA is a spy, you know.

15

Myth. They tried playing it backwards on the Stern show, it was gibberish.

16

And here I was making excuses for this agency for maybe dropping the ball, thinking the poor dears had no secretaries, clerks, or other staff support! Learn something new every day. :wink:

17

Just an idle question - was Stern expecting to hear it in English? I’m not saying I believe there was a back-recorded message; it’s just hard for me accept Howard Stern as an authority.

18

This question has puzzled me since I started hearing these rumors: if bin Laden were going to release a message like VV mentioned, why would he bother hiding it? I don’t think it’s any secret that he would like for the extremist Muslim world to rise up in a sort of unified jihad. If anything, I’d expect him to be on the horn screaming in a megaphone

YO! MUSLIMS! GET YOUR ASSES OUT OF BED AND LET’S DESTROY SOME STUFF

not hiding the message backwards in a videotape. I think the kind of message the gov’t is referring to is more like specific instructions to operatives.

19

The backwards message wasn’t a straight-forward backward message.

It was in some kind of code which GCHQ had to break. They won’t release the exact details of the code for obvious reasons.

So just playing the video backwards wouldn’t reveal the message. But it has to be played backwards to reveal the code.

This is what I heard but I haven’t heard any more about it so maybe it is false.

20

There are times that, as justified as we may be to be pretty gun shy, that you can’t help but think that some place in the bowels of the federal government there is an office with this label on the door: Office for Looking Under the Bed for the Bogeyman. Ever since September 11 we have been so damn jumpy that it is somewhat surprising that anybody has gotten anything done. Calm down. Assess the risk. Recognize that there are a lot of fruit cakes out there and some of them have ready access to microphones. More alarmingly, a fair number of these self appointed Paul Reveres have their own ax to grind.