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| Ridge says holiday security alert averted terrorist attack |
| 2004-02-05 |
| My guess would be that he’s dead-on here and that same is likely true with all of the flight cancellations during the Eid al-Ahda. That gives us a window to kill or capture all the bad guys before they come back around to take a second wing at us. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said yesterday that he believes security crackdowns over the Christmas holidays, including the cancellation of some passenger flights into the United States, averted a terrorist attack. But intelligence on the threat was so wispy that U.S. officials may never know for sure, he said. The volume of threat information from many separate sources, some mentioning the same cities and the same international flights, was alarming and unprecedented, Ridge said. It led to the raising of the national threat alert level to orange, or "high risk," on Dec. 21. The index was lowered three weeks later. "It was very unusual," he said. "My gut tells me we did" avert an al Qaeda operation during that time, he told reporters yesterday. After checking the passenger lists for a number of U.S.-bound flights over the holidays, French and British officials said they doubted that any passenger intended to hijack a jet. But U.S. officials said that perhaps some terrorists did not show up for the flights or aborted their plans. "Their assessment of some of the information was different from ours," Ridge said. Although he said Washington, Paris and London communicated well during the holiday alert, there also were "uncomfortable" moments. Ridge said he took responsibility for some of them because, about Dec. 20, with time running out amid fears over some Paris-to-New York flights, he called Air France officials to insist they take some security precautions without informing French officials. "I created the tension over the holidays," he said. He also acknowledged that his call several days later for foreign airlines entering U.S. airspace to deploy armed air marshals annoyed some foreign governments. U.S. officials are asking foreign airlines to send detailed data about passengers -- such as passport numbers -- to Washington when flights are booked, rather than when travelers arrive at the airport. Late-arriving information often causes U.S.-bound flights to be held on the ground pending checks, he said. Concerned that the public is becoming jaded about the threat warnings, Ridge repeated his desire to go to orange alert only in the most dire cases. Recalling one four-month period last year when three orange alerts were raised, he said "that horrible period" left Americans "anxious and angry." Overall, Ridge said, the entire business of canceling flights or basing national security options on vaporous intelligence is a guessing game, at best. "I can’t emphasize enough the incompleteness of the intelligence," he said. "You get bits and pieces. . . . It’s the toughest job in any war." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #12 Yawl think about the pastels all you want... but I've been snaping my fingers.... snapin, snapin, snapin, see... works man... yeah..... |
| Posted by: Pincem Trio 2004-2-5 1:17:32 PM |
| #11 Fred - excellent idea. This is a tried-and-true means of conveying both obvious (to those paying attention - a wake-up to the rest) and subtle truth. Note to Ridge: Get on it, bubba! |
| Posted by: .com 2004-2-5 12:41:14 PM |
| #10 he called Air France officials to insist they take some security precautions without informing French officials. Hmmm..does that read that he insisted the airlines not inform French officials about their new security precautions?? snicker..wouldn't surprise me a bit if it did. |
| Posted by: B 2004-2-5 10:48:28 AM |
| #9 Maybe Ridge should think about plastering "Success means nothing happens" posters in every American airport... |
| Posted by: Fred 2004-2-5 10:34:04 AM |
| #8 I assume I have dated myself:) |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-2-5 10:30:08 AM |
| #7 yep, but with a different name |
| Posted by: floatinginspace 2004-2-5 9:46:47 AM |
| #6 An LLSO, floating? |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-2-5 9:43:00 AM |
| #5 This is the hardest part about anti-terror activities. Sucess means nothing happens. How many sucesses can we have before citizens no longer pay attention? I'm not calling for Booms mind you. Just pointing out the paradox of these operations. You're damned if something happens, or damned that there "appears to be no threat" since nothing has happened in a while. |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-2-5 9:35:43 AM |
| #4 I'm just afraid that we're about to experience another witch hunt with this. Not too long ago we (Army) were actually forbidden to say the word "collect" in regards to intelligence down range. I can't imagine mid-level managers getting more timid. If we don't get our act together soon, we better get used to the idea of the Islamic Caliphate of Texas. |
| Posted by: floatinginspace 2004-2-5 9:08:18 AM |
| #3 Our intel response would be even better if not for the PC rules on profiling. Without these rules we would have allowed the airplanes to fly and taken the arabs off the plane. But of course they would have sued so instead we had to block the whole plane. Thank you Norm Mineta and company. |
| Posted by: mhw 2004-2-5 8:15:31 AM |
| #2 There was enough going on around Christmas that I suspect Ridge is correct in his assertion that we probably thwarted an attack. And, I appreciate his candor regarding mistakes that were made in the process. However, speculation like this is unhelpful because assertions without hard evidence will be used to discredit the entire WOT by those who do not believe it should be fought. |
| Posted by: JAB 2004-2-5 7:16:54 AM |
| #1 This is something that has bugged me about the whole "Bush Lied" meme. Intelligence is by its very nature, an iffy art. At some point one has to weigh the potential consequences of doing nothing, to the potential consequences of reacting to a threat that does not really exist. If you do nothing and you are wrong, people die. If you do something and you are wrong, well, that can be bad for some, and the question is whether it is better for the government and its people, than the other guys. Ridge is not quite right. Gathering and analyzing intel is not the hardest job. Its making decisions based on what those spies and analysis come up with. |
| Posted by: Ben 2004-2-5 5:40:23 AM |