Experts cast doubt on credibility of JFK terror plot

[maddezmom]

NEW YORK (AFP) - An alleged plot to blow up fuel tanks and pipelines at New York's JFK airport had little chance of success, according to safety experts, who have questioned whether the plot ever posed a real threat.

US authorities said Saturday they had averted an attack that could have resulted in "unfathomable damage, deaths, and destruction," and charged four alleged Islamic radicals with conspiracy to cause an explosion at the airport.

But according to the experts, it would have been next to impossible to cause an explosion in the jet fuel tanks and pipeline. Furthermore, the plotters seem to have lacked the explosives and financial backing to carry out the attack.

John Goglia, a former member of National Transportation Safety Board, said that if the plot had ever been carried out, it would likely have sparked a fire but little else, and certainly not the mass carnage authorities described.

more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070605/ts_afp/usattacksairportskepticism_070605001240;_ylt=Apn190BXkJYnVYv4lBAoQl.QOrgF

[maddezmom]

1. Time: The JFK Plot: Overstating the Case?

On Saturday, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Roslynn Mauskopf, went on TV with FBI and police officials to announce a victory. Four men had been charged in what Mauskopf described as "one of the most chilling plots imaginable." If successful, she said, the plot "could have resulted in unfathomable damage, deaths and destruction." And just in case there was any doubt about the gravity of the plot, she added, "The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable."

But the 33-page complaint against the men, issued by Mauskopf's office, describes a plan that is somewhat less impressive. The four suspects, Russell Defreitas, Kareem Ibrahim, Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur, allegedly schemed to blow up fuel tanks and a fuel pipeline at JFK Airport. This plan did not target passenger terminals or airplanes. It was an attack on ... jet fuel. Which would have been rather hard to pull off successfully. "Jet fuel is flammable and can be made to explode, but it's difficult," says Richard Kuprewicz, an independent energy consultant who has worked with pipeline operators for 33 years. Even if someone did manage to blow up a fuel tank, the resulting fire would not spread through the main pipeline, he says. "Are they true terrorism targets that would shut down JFK for weeks or even days? No."

Excerpts from taped conversations with the suspects, included in the complaint, make it clear that, while they may have dreamed of pulling off a major terrorist strike, they had very little idea what they were actually doing. In the worst-case scenario, there might have been a fire — which would have been contained to an unpopulated area of the airport, since that's where the tanks and the pipeline are located. "This whole theory that they were going to blow up this entire 40-mile pipeline shows naïveté in my mind," says Roy Haase, spokesperson for the Buckeye Partners LP, which runs the pipeline in question. "They were foolish."

~snip~

But the issue here is not that the plot is hard to believe. If it turns out to be true, the authorities did an excellent job foiling a plot before it happened. The problem is the fear mongering, the fact that all too often these days, the rhetoric around these anti-terror arrests doesn't fit the charges. It is hardly the first time we've seen officials get overstimulated when announcing terrorism charges. Remember Jose Padilla? Or the "more-aspirational-than-operational" Seas of David group?. So why is is that, in so many terror cases, prosecutors seem to go out of their way to make alleged bad guys sound scarier than they are

more:http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1628169,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

[Paranoid Pessimist]

2. Keith Olberman went through all 13 supposed terrorst threats last night

He reviewed them and, without exception, they were announced at politically expedient times, to distract the news cycle from news that would reflect poorly on the Bush gang. And, also without exception, none of them were active, put-people-truly-in-danger threats.

YouTube version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK_bVTc6GGc&eurl=http%3A...