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Microcap & Penny Stocks : TGL WHAAAAAAAT! Alerts, thoughts, discussion. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Bishop who wrote (91563)	9/11/2001 5:45:59 PM
From: Tom Allinder	Respond to of 150070

Well, living only 4 miles from the Oceana Navy Jet base here in Va Beach, I have been witness to lots of comings and goings of F-18 and F-14 jets today. All loaded with Sidewinder air to air missiles. All local military bases are in a state of lock down. This has been an amazing and horrible day. Tom

To: Jim Bishop who wrote (91563)	9/11/2001 5:47:11 PM
From: Jim Bishop	Respond to of 150070

janes.com A prime suspect By JIR contributor Sean Boyne An initial prime suspect behind the terrorist onslaught on the US, the most devastating such attack the world has ever seen, is Osama bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind who resides in Afghanistan. Bin Laden is one of the few terror bosses with the resources, ruthlessness and organisational skills to facilitate such an elaborate attack on his prime enemy, the United States. The terrorists struck at the heart of the American system: the World Trade Center was one of the symbols of Western capitalism; the Pentagon is the nerve centre of US military might. Immediately US allies around the world went onto a state of alert. The operations, which resulted in a huge death toll running into thousands, were carried out with ruthless professionalism. From his safe haven in Afghanistan bin Laden, an exiled Saudi millionaire, has shown in the past that he has the ability to run his operations far from home with deadly effectiveness. His operatives were able to carry out devastating and well co-ordinated car bomb attacks on two US embassies in Africa in 1998. Washington launched cruise missile attacks against bin Laden's base in Afghanistan in retaliation, but terrorism experts believe that bin Laden continued to build up his network - the US missile attacks providing him with an additional motive for retaliation. And security experts believe that bin Laden absorbed the remnants of the terror group responsible for a previous bomb attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. Because of the extremist ideology that drives bin Laden and his followers, it can be expected that suicide attacks would form part of their modus operandi. This is another consideration that would support the thesis that bin Laden might be behind the attacks, since the hijackers of the aircraft would obviously have died in the attacks. However, at the time of writing, it should be noted that analysts are still speculating in trying to pinpoint a culprit. As far back as September 1999, Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor (JTSM) reported that law enforcement agencies were fearful that bin Laden's group was preparing for a series of new attacks on US targets, especially financial targets in New York. JTSM reported that the security agencies recommended stepped-up security at the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve Board. It has also been reported on BBC Radio that just three weeks ago bin Laden warned that there would be an attack on New York in retaliation for US support for Israel. The fact that Israeli forces have become locked in conflict with the Palestinians may have acted as the immediate catalyst for the attacks. Investigators have been examining the passenger lists from the hijacked aircraft in an attempt to identify the hijackers. If the airliners' 'Black Box' flight data recorders are recovered, these could also help identify the operatives involved. The unprecedented attacks in Washington and New York were initially claimed by a caller to a media outlet claiming to represent the Palestinian Marxist-Leninist group the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). However, a senior figure in the DFLP later denied involvement. Aircraft hijacking has formerly been a hallmark of Middle Eastern terror groups. The advent of what is considered modern international terrorism occurred in July 1968 when members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked an Israeli El Al commercial flight en route from Rome to Tel Aviv. There have been other hijackings since then, but this is the first time that hijacked aircraft have been used as 'flying bombs' to attack high-profile buildings in the Western world. It was a classical terrorist outrage: a 'spectacular' or 'terrorism as theatre' to use some of the phrases that have been used to describe such horrific events. Moreover, those responsible showed no regard for the scale of the deaths that would result from their actions, thus achieving another terrorist aim: the striking of fear and panic into the citizens of the country that is being targeted. Should bin Laden emerge as the culprit, it can be expected that US forces will mount devastating retaliatory strikes against him if his location can be pin-pointed in Afghanistan, where he has been hiding out in a region controlled by the ruling Taliban. Last December Jane's Intelligence Review reported that, according to Afghan opponents of the Taliban movement, bin Laden had moved to a heavily defended hideout in the northern mountains of Afghanistan. Meanwhile, one can expect that US intelligence agencies charged with monitoring the terrorist threat will be carrying out an urgent post-mortem. They will be seeking to answer a number of questions. How did the terrorists manage to mount such an audacious attack undiscovered? How could such an attack be prevented in future? The number one priority, however, remains tracking down those responsible. If bin Laden is proven to be the culprit, he faces a distinctly hazardous future.