Al-Qaeda affiliate calls for strikes on U.S. targets such as D.C. restaurants

[bemildred]

Source: WaPo

Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen urges followers to strike U.S. targets, including restaurants in Washington, in a new edition of an English-language publication that the group posts online.

In a section that suggests ideas for attacks inside the United States, the publication says that using firearms to carry out "a random hit at a crowded restaurant in Washington D.C. at lunch hour for example might end up knocking out a few government employees" and attracting widespread news media attention.

U.S. counterterrorism officials said they were taking the threat seriously. "When specific locations are mentioned as possible targets, that's always a concern," said a U.S. counterterrorism official. "This terrorist publication is filled with the kind of hatred you see in other extremist propaganda."

Militant groups have long used the Internet to distribute information on targets and methods of attack. But al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemen-based offshoot is known, is a source of particular concern because of its ties to previous strikes on U.S. soil, including a deadly shooting at Fort Hood, Tex., and the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner last year.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/12/AR2010101204536.html?hpid=moreheadlines

[applegrove]

1. Reeks of desperation.

[bemildred]

3. Hey, Yemen is a big modern country.

Vast resources are being arrayed against us as we chat here.

[awoke_in_2003]

6. well shit...

better beef up the Patriot Act. Thanks, but no thanks- I would rather live free and possibly die in a random attack. If you live a paranoid life, it is not a life worth living.

[grahamhgreen]

2. OMG - I'm sure an underwear bomber is wetting his pants over this!

[EFerrari]

4. Who knew Al Qaida doesn't use Yelp.

:yoiks:

[Poll_Blind]

5. Oh right, aren't these the "How to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom" guys? n/t

PB

[Alamuti Lotus]

7. there's an old fable I read on some "jihad" message board years ago

It was the real thing, though very tongue in cheek -- these guys aren't given credit for their macabre sense of humour sometimes. He was speaking to a few younger hotheads about the jihad, one tactic he suggested employing above any other involved two fighters and two flags. One fighter raised a flag at the far edge of the world, and all the crusaders would flock towards it; at this time, another fighter is to raise a flag at the far other edge of the world, and all the crusaders would flock towards that; by this method, they could keep the enemy chasing ghosts until the end of time and the end of the empire's bank stockpiles. All of the technology and paranoia of the empire is employed against iteslf;--for they are inevitably foolish enough to take the bait every time and quite gleefully bury themselves in quicksand over and over again.

[tomm2thumbs]

8. when 1 pastor can get world-wide attention threatening to burn a book, every nut learns

toss the press a reason to repeat you, and they will repeat you

even the idiot, Balloon Boy's dad, knew this

sad

[Hubert Flottz]

9. The BushCo Gangsters would have gone into red alert over this.

Tom Ridge would be passing out the Duct Tape and pissing on the Constitution.