# Nyc Terror Attack Thwarted!!!!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [July 7, 2006, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518 "2006-07-07T17:18:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/1 "2006-07-07T17:18:51Z")
Um, not really, sorry if I scared you. :rolleyes:
> **[Top 10 International Stories for 2006](https://www.foxnews.com/story/top-10-international-stories-for-2006)**
>
> As 2006 comes to a close, FOXNews.
[http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/07/tunnel.plot/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/07/tunnel.plot/index.html)
From fox…
> [@](#):
>
> WASHINGTON — FBI agents monitoring **Internet chat rooms** _ **smashed** _ an apparent **Al Qaeda** terrorist plot to attack New York City’s underground transportation system, law enforcement officials said Friday.
Then we get…
> [@](#):
>
> “At this time, we have no indication of any imminent threat to the New York transportation system or anywhere else in the United States,” Richard Kolko, Washington-based FBI special agent, said in a statement.
Huh wtf?
Of course read the fine print…
> [@](#):
>
> The planning was not far along, one U.S. official said, but authorities “take aspirations of that sort seriously.”
Aspirations? Christ, you would have thought they wrestled the bad guy to the ground before he could push the button on the detonator. This is a bunch of morons talking some kill america chit in a chat room. That’s about as far away from actual execution that you can get. Now am I happy they busted a bunch of fools and are investigating them? I sure am, I’m thrilled. Am I happy with the way our govt is blowing this like they they just saved us from a glass parking lot? Hell no!
Bah!
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/2 "2006-07-07T17:27:57Z")
Thank you for posting this thread, **World Eater**. I can now sleep soundly at night knowing that the system works.
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### Author:  [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/3 "2006-07-07T17:29:56Z")
So the pitting is against Fox for using the word “smashed”? Eh, FOX used charged languge.
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### Author:  [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/4 "2006-07-07T17:36:44Z")
“Terror cell busted” is the new “terror threat level raised to blinking red”.
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### Author:  [@velveeta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velveeta)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/5 "2006-07-07T17:40:51Z")
CNN kept repeating the tiny little information they had about this “massive plot” this morning, and I kept wondering what was so newsworthy about it. I knew it was just a slow news day when the following happened:
They were talking about the moment of silence in London to commemorate the people who died a year ago today during the bombings. Ok, so far so good. Then the talking head says, “Let’s listen to some of that silence right now.” Then they played some white noise.
I kid you not.
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### Author:  [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/6 "2006-07-07T17:42:36Z")
What would make you happy here, **World Eater**? Confronting the terrorists just moments before they blew up the explosives they eventually managed to get into the tunnel and shooting them with an uzi like someone out of a Bruce Willis movie?
I’m quite sure 9/11 started out as “some kill america chit in a chat room”. The fact that 9/11 happened points to what happened when you don’t take things like this really, _really_ seriously from the start.
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### Author:  [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/7 "2006-07-07T17:58:03Z")
What would I like done? Bust them and shut the fuck up about it.
a) We don’t need to know this shit
b) This is seriously trumped up in order to grandstand.
c) a & b piss me off
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/8 "2006-07-07T17:59:38Z")
> [@Linty Fresh](#):
>
> What would make you happy here, **World Eater**?
I don’t think he’s upset because the plot was thwarted, he’s upset that the government is treating it as a major coup. Although it’s actually the media that’s making such a big deal of it.
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### Author:  [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/9 "2006-07-07T18:07:41Z")
I think I’m with Linty on this one, I don’t know if there’s much in the way of overreaction when it comes to this kind of talk, but then again I think that some of the sentiments that have been posted on this board before might fall into the same category. Don’t we have the freedom to say whatever we want, in an intellectual ideas kind of a way?
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### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/10 "2006-07-07T18:12:55Z")
> [@World Eater](#):
>
> What would I like done? Bust them and shut the fuck up about it.
But that seems to me to be exactly what happened. From your CNN link:
> [@CNN](#):
>
> Counterterrorism sources confirmed that a plot to blow up tunnels in lower Manhattan was uncovered several months ago when intelligence about the plan emerged in chat rooms on the Internet
and
> [@CNN](#):
>
> Rifi said the man was arrested more than a month ago in his Beirut apartment in an operation conducted in coordination with the FBI.
So, if the “plot” was uncovered several months ago, and the suspect was arrested more than a month ago, but the story is just now surfacing, it seem to me that the U.S. government, rather than trumpeting a minor success, has actually been kinda quiet about it.
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### Author:  [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/11 "2006-07-07T18:14:24Z")
Christ, give em a god damned break already. These people work night and day trying to protect us. Throw em a fucking bone once in a while, or at the very least, don’t rub their noses in dogshit. Prick.
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### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/12 "2006-07-07T18:16:04Z")
And here’s the press release from DHS. Seems pretty low-key to me. One lousy paragraph, most of which is just generic filler material.
> **[Law Enforcement & Mission Support | Homeland Security](https://www.dhs.gov/homeland-security-careers/leo-hiring-event)**
>
> This is a large-scale, in-person recruiting and hiring event to fill hundreds of law enforcement and mission related opportunities across the department.
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### Author:  [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/13 "2006-07-07T18:18:27Z")
> [@Cluricaun](#):
>
> Don’t we have the freedom to say whatever we want, in an intellectual ideas kind of a way?
I think you should start a GQ thread about how to best blow up the NY subway system. Or maybe GD, there might be some debate as to how to best blow up the NY subway system.
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/14 "2006-07-07T18:27:13Z")
The “plot” was to blow up the Holland Tunnel and flood lower Manhattan.
Which is fucking stupid. Lower Manhattan is above sea level. So blowing a hole in the tunnel wouldn’t flood anything other than the tunnel itself. Assuming you could even blow a hole through plate steel and granite bedrock.
There don’t seem to have been any concrete plans. No money or money trail. No explosives. No conspirators actually in the United States or Europe. Nothing, it seems, other a bunch of idiots shooting their mouths off in some random internet chat room about their violent fantasies.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/15 "2006-07-07T18:43:53Z")
Well, the _Daily News_ has to sell papers, and it’s up against the _Post_’s **CHAINSAW PSYCHO!**
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### Author:  [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/16 "2006-07-07T18:48:43Z")
> [@Linty Fresh](#):
>
> What would make you happy here, **World Eater**? Confronting the terrorists just moments before they blew up the explosives they eventually managed to get into the tunnel and shooting them with an uzi like someone out of a Bruce Willis movie?
It’s my impression that this is what the media would like us to believe. That way they can sell more papers or throw up blinking 60 point banners.
Now I’ll remove one of my beefs and _wait_ to see what the govt does. But the first time Bush, Rummy, Condi, Snow, and a host of other characters trumps this out as preventing “a major attack” (within the week), I win.
> [@](#):
>
> I’m quite sure 9/11 started out as “some kill america chit in a chat room”. The fact that 9/11 happened points to what happened when you don’t take things like this really, _really_ seriously from the start.
Who the hell suggested that we don’t take this seriously. Just don’t spin it to be something it’s not. A major attack.
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### Author:  [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/17 "2006-07-07T18:51:11Z")
> [@tdn](#):
>
> I don’t think he’s upset because the plot was thwarted, he’s upset that the government is treating it as a major coup. Although it’s actually the media that’s making such a big deal of it.
Exactly.
I’m frustrated that just as probably half the country still believes SH and AQ had links, so will they now believe “A MAJOR ATTACK!!!” was thwarted.
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### Author:  [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/18 "2006-07-07T18:51:30Z")
> [@Uncle Beer](#):
>
> So, if the “plot” was uncovered several months ago, and the suspect was arrested more than a month ago, but the story is just now surfacing, it seem to me that the U.S. government, rather than trumpeting a minor success, has actually been kinda quiet about it.
It seems to me that the news has been withheld until it can do the most PR good. It hit the mediasphere on Friday morning to make a big splash as people were heading into the weekend. Fewer people will read the paper or watch the news on Saturday, and on Sunday this will be all over the morning political shows where the pundits can coo over it. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if there’s some damaging story that will be released late this afternoon or tonight that this little tidbit is designed to timed to cover for.
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### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/19 "2006-07-07T20:12:34Z")
> [@World Eater](#):
>
> Exactly.
>
> I’m frustrated that just as probably half the country still believes SH and AQ had links, so will they now believe “A MAJOR ATTACK!!!” was thwarted.
Good work, World Eater. You said you’d retract one of your beefs and wait to see what the gov’t has to say. Then, in your _very next post_, the one I just quoted, you amplify the very thing you say you’re gonna withhold.
> [@vibrotronica](#):
>
> It seems to me that the news has been withheld until it can do the most PR good. It hit the mediasphere on Friday morning to make a big splash as people were heading into the weekend. Fewer people will read the paper or watch the news on Saturday, and on Sunday this will be all over the morning political shows where the pundits can coo over it. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if there’s some damaging story that will be released late this afternoon or tonight that this little tidbit is designed to timed to cover for.
Well, that might explain the government holding the information for a couple days, but not an entire month. A much more logical reason for withholding the information, would be to protect the investigation - one that CNN has called “continuing.”
Ya know, I’m one skeptical, cynical sumbitch. But the lengths to which some of you folks seem to want to go to find fault with the Bush administration is laughable. Some of you guys make me seem like a sunny optimist with rainbows and kittens shooting outta my asshole. It all to often seems that the first conclusion you jump right to is that the Bush administration either fucked up because it’s fantastically incompetent, or it’s diabolically clever. And once you’ve arrived there at that point, all manner of logical thinking goes right out the damn window. You seem unable to rationally scrutinize your opinions when it comes to this administration.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyc-terror-attack-thwarted/363518/20 "2006-07-07T20:29:08Z")
As someone who takes the PATH to and from work every day, this
> [@](#):
>
> He said the plot to blow up the PATH commuter train tunnels this fall was the “real deal.”
gave me tsouris, though I was cheered up again by this
> [@](#):
>
> PATH train riders took the news of the plot in stride. “It bothers us, it scares us, but you gotta keep living, you know?” said **Dudley Nosy** , 21, a security guard from Brooklyn who regularly takes the train to Jersey City to see his girlfriend. “You can’t stay in the house all day long, you gotta do what you gotta do.”
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