Is Bush Inviting Another Terrorist Attack?

By James Donahue

Feb. 10, 2006

President George W. Bush revealed details this week of an alleged “foiled terrorist attack” on a Los Angeles skyscraper while attempting to justify his order to spy on Americans.

The president said there was an al Qaeda plan in 2002 to capture another commercial jet and fly it into the 73-story Library Tower in Los Angeles, known to be the tallest building west of the Mississippi. He boasted that good intelligence work stopped the attack and he implied that continued surveillance through the Department of Homeland Security is going to keep America safe from further attacks of this kind.

“By working together we stopped a catastrophic attack on our homeland,” Bush boasted

The Bush speech, presented Thursday at the National Guard Memorial Building, was designed to not only defend his position on homeland electronic spying but to promote the permanent renewal of the Patriot Act. It shocked Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who complained that he was not informed of the president’s plans to reveal this information.

He said he first learned of Bush’s remarks while watching television.

In the meantime, an ABC news report noted that the plan to hit the Los Angeles tower was originally included as part of the 9-11 series of attacks, but was set aside after Osama bin Laden decided the plan was too ambitious for a single day. The attack was set aside for a later time.

Before al Qaeda hit the Los Angeles tower one of the alleged hijackers was captured in another country and during interrogation he revealed the plan.

It apparently was merely by accident that the Los Angeles attack was diverted, and not because of any extra surveillance going on in the United States.

That Bush would use this story to justify the wholesale dismantling of Constitutional rights and freedoms of American citizens to stop further terrorist attacks is repugnant. That he is all but boasting that American’s are safe because we have willingly given up our freedoms might even be blatantly taunting the al Qaeda to launch another attack on U. S. soil.

Our wholesale bombing of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the threats of extending our warfare into Iran has triggered a united hatred among Moslem nations toward the United States. The frustration is being expressed this week in the massive rioting going on over a cartoon image involving ridicule of the Prophet Mohammad.

That so many people in so many countries would demonstrate, set fire to buildings and react to the simple act of ridiculing the god figure of the Moslem faith may, at first blush, seem inappropriate. Yet if you understand the real sentiment behind the rioting, there is a major venting of anger going on throughout the Moslem world right now.

And if the truth were known, the target is America, not so much the Danish or European media where the cartoon was published.