Emergencies and Disasters-Preparing America

With the terror alert risk raised from <b>elevated</b> to <b>high</b>...it couldn't hurt to read up on being prepared. <a href="http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home2.jsp"> Here</a> is the recommended site....the web pages for the US Department of Homeland Security. I am listening to the breaking news on this now...this world is just so frightening! I know it's easy to say "don't be scared"....but I am...for my child mostly! Take care. angel

 

hey angel....I'm watching it too. I liked what Tom Ridge had to say and the info he gave.

 

Sorry, but I've said it before and I'll say it again. If we let the terrorists control what we do on a day to day basis, they win. Their greatest weapon is our fear. Don't give up and don't give in. It's our choice on how we react to "news".

 

FJ: Don't worry I am not consumed by fear! I just want my son to be safe is all I worry about. Terrorists are frigging morons with zero feelings for mankind! I hope they are rooted out, even if one by one and dispensed to Allah or whatever God they think they are impressing...wouldn't see me crying for them! It just irks me that animals like this have to exist at all. Take care. angel

 

Thanks Angel:

I bookmarked that site. I've only just skimmed it, looks like some good info to know before an incident.

 

Stoner: You're welcome. Take care. angel

P.S.-You know our good buddy Balzac....his name sounds like an empire doesn't it!

 

YEAH ... WHAT HE SAID!

*LAN High-5's Firejay*

 

Don't worry Marlene. "If" enemies could attack America and "if" they did, they would hit targets of substance. Large cities, military bases, etc. I'm sure you live in a nice town but I'm also sure it isn't on the hit list of any possible enemy. You have the least to be worried about.

 

Sounds to me, just like his attitude. A stinky one at that.

 

Jim: I guess the only real target near me are the two Blue Water bridges, 5 minutes from my home, connecting Port Huron and Canada. But I think they would never blow those up so they can continue to enter the US there...if they do. The Birchwood Mall is pretty big though and is always jam packed with Americans and Canadians. But I do agree...Port Huron is not a likely target....and Detroit is about an hours drive from here. Detroit is close to Dearborn...Dearborn has a 53% Arabic population. I'm not going to worry anymore Jim...why waste my time doing that...it's counter-productive and I NEVER want to worry my son! I think targets would most likely be major cities like Washington, LA, Seattle, etc. or overseas. Thanks Jim for your reply. Take care and have a great weekend! angel

P.S.-Selfridge Air Base is about 20 minutes from here...but even that isn't a large base.

 

Feb. 7 — The Bush administration raised the national threat alert from “yellow” to “orange” Friday after receiving new intelligence reports that pointed to the possibility of multiple imminent attacks by Al Qaeda against Jewish groups and Jewish-owned businesses inside the United States, NEWSWEEK has learned.

ACTING SWIFTLY ON the reports, FBI officials began contacting Jewish leaders and rabbis around the country Friday to warn them to be especially vigilant and to enhance security at Sabbath services and other events over the weekend, law-enforcement sources said. State and local police were also being asked to provide extra patrols for Jewish religious services and other gatherings. Officials said the new intelligence warned about the possibility of attacks on synagogues, Jewish community centers, Jewish hospitals, youth groups, hotels and resorts.

Law-enforcement officials stressed that they had no information that could help them identify any specific targets and that it was difficult to stress the credibility of much of the intelligence reporting. But officials said they were unusually worried both because of recent electronic intercepts—both inside the United States and overseas—that “strongly suggests” an imminent attack as well as the sheer volume of reports mentioning Jewish targets that came in over the last few days.

“This is a full-court press,” said one FBI official about the bureau’s sudden outreach to Jewish groups. “There’s real anxiety about this.” A senior law-enforcement official said the “volume of threats relating to Jewish interests” inside the United States was a major factor in prompting President Bush to raise the intelligence threat level to “orange,” which is the color code for a “high risk” of terrorist attack.

Among those Jewish leaders who were contacted by the FBI Friday was Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, one of the country’s leading Jewish civil-rights groups, which has been holding its annual meeting at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla.

Foxman said the FBI asked his help in identifying Jewish organizations and businesses that should be notified about the new intelligence threats. He said the FBI told him the information was “nonspecific,” adding that his organization has already implemented the kinds of enhanced security measures that the FBI advised.

“We’ve been through this before,” Foxman said. “Whenever the country goes on higher alert, Jewish interests are seen as a softer target,” he said.

But Foxman said the FBI did appear to focus on one area: to identify hotels that are owned by Jews. The issue of possible attacks on Jewish-owned hotels was specifically raised by senior FBI officials with field-office chiefs during a 90-minute conference call on Friday, officials said. During the conference call, a senior official cited the recent Al Qaeda attack on a Bali nightclub that killed nearly 200 people last October, saying that the bureau now believes the facility was targeted because the owner was Jewish. NEWSWEEK could not independently confirm that assertion.

Another recent Al Qaeda attack in Mombasa, Kenya, was aimed at a hotel that was frequented by Israelis. In addition, sources said, German law-enforcement agencies have collected information from defectors indicating that terror suspect Abu Moussab Al-Zarqawi, a Palestinian whom the Bush administration says is the link between Al Qaeda and Iraq, had recently been enciting followers in Europe to attack Jewish targets.

The information about threats to Jewish-related interests was alarming to U.S. officials because of the unusually large number of them that came in over the past few days, the senior law-enforcement official said. But the official stressed that there were also concerns about other threats inside the United States, including reports of an attack using chemical, biological or radiological weapons. “We had much more information on chem-bio stuff,” the official said. “That really unnerved me.”

But other officials said the new threats were not materially different than others that have been picked up by the U.S. intelligence community periodically ever since the September 11 terror attacks. In the past, those threats have prompted Bush administration officials to issue public warnings yet no terrorist attacks actually took place. Some intelligence officials say it’s still hard to know what to make of some of the electronic intercepts of Al Qaeda operatives that prompted the latest action. “You can’t always tell whether this is idle boasting” or evidence of a looming plot, one official said.

But the FBI is leaving little to chance. On Tuesday, before the new threats to Jewish targets came in, FBI issued a classified advisory to all 56 field offices entitled “Al Qaeda Set to Attack.” The advisory reviewed a series of recent intelligence reports—including “reliable information” from the CIA that Al Qaeda is “moving forward with plans for near-term attacks in multiple locations.” The advisory said “the attacks appear timed to occur in the next two months to coincide with the period immediately after the end of the Haaj,” the annual Muslim pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. It also mentioned the likelihood that the attacks would be timed to coincide with the outbreak of war in Iraq.

© 2003 Newsweek, Inc.

 

CF:

I qualify all my statements that I possibly can. "absolute" is "obsolete". Please refer to my post in the "Paine" thread for further clarification.

 

My, my, my ... we have "absolutes" (or lack of) tossed out in 3 different threads now... my mind is swimming. I've been contemplating my response to "there are no absolutes", and now I have to choose which thread to post it in.

 

Ah yes, I do recall that PC (you actually explained it to me in a thread, how soon I forget )

Thnx for responding to my puzzlement, and I will check out your post in "Paine".

I do have to wonder, however, if the qualifying fits.

Suppose I wrote "Enemies CAN'T attack America". I would most definitely be displaying an arrogance that is widely being discussed as of late, and would, quite frankly, be wrong, since (recent) history has shown otherwise.

So that really only leaves one possiblility, if stating something "can't" be done is incorrect, than that means it "can" be done. There may be qualifyers on that (probability, capability, etc., etc.) but none the less, the opposite of "can't" is "can", no?