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January 12, 2006NY Times tipped terrorists? (UPDATED)Reliapundit links to a report which he says can be considered circumstantial proof that the NY Times, in leaking the NSA wiretapping program, has tipped off terrorists and thus made our job more difficult. Seems disposable phones are selling like hotcakes in certain quarters. They’re tough to trace. Law enforcement officials say the phones were used to detonate the bombs terrorists used in the Madrid train attacks in March 2004. “The application of prepaid phones for nefarious reasons, is really widespread. For example, the terrorists in Madrid used prepaid phones to detonate the bombs in the subway trains that killed more than 200 people,” said Roger Entner, a communications consultant. In one New Year’s Eve transaction at a Target store in Hemet, Calif., 150 disposable tracfones were purchased. Suspicious store employees notified police, who called in the FBI, law enforcement sources said. In an earlier incident, at a Wal-mart store in Midland, Texas, on December 18, six individuals attempted to buy about 60 of the phones until store clerks became suspicious and notified the police. A Wal-mart spokesperson confirmed the incident. …”Information obtained by MPD [Midland Police Department] dispatch personnel indicated that approximately six individuals of Middle-Eastern origin were attempting to purchase an unusually large quantity of tracfones (disposable cell phones with prepaid minutes attached).” At least one of the suspects was identified as being from Iraq and another from Pakistan, officials said. Could it be that all of those phones are being used for legitimate purposes? I suppose so. Maybe a mosque picnic being organized? Except…there’s this part: “Evasive responses provided by the subjects, coupled with actions observed by officers at the onset of the contact prompted the notification of local FBI officials to assist in the investigation,” the report said. “Upon the arrival of special agents, and as a result of subsequent interviews, it was discovered that members of the group were linked to suspected terrorist cells stationed within the Metroplex” Let us be clear, here. Although the US press pretty much buried the story, terrorists actively planning against the United States were recently captured and arrested in Italy, thanks to these wiretaps. The post at Powerline is huge and there is more on the story here and here. (H/T Reader RM). The Turkish press (via Redstate) spelled it out pretty out, clearly: Three Algerians arrested in an anti-terrorist operation in southern Italy are suspected of being linked to a planned new series of attacks in the United States, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said Friday. The attacks would have targeted ships, stadiums or railway stations in a bid to outdo the September 11, 2001 strikes by Al-Qaeda in New York and Washington which killed some 2,700 people, Pisanu said. Maybe some Americans forget what 9/11 was like. It’s easy to do; we don’t like to dwell on what is sad and tragic, and we don’t like to feel insecure. And perhaps because our president and his team HAVE managed to keep us safe, HAVE managed to prevent another attack on our soil, using these (what the left would call) “impeachable” tactics, perhaps we are feeling a little too safe, a little over-confident. That must be true for some, particularly many Democrats, who would like to “kill the Patriot act,” as Sen. Harry Reid crowed, or leak every covert measure we are taking, (hello, New York Times, hello James Risen) or who seem to wish to tie the hands of the government at every turn in the War on Terror. Feeling pretty safe, are you? Pretty secure? Has 9/11 become a faded memory for you? I haven’t forgotten. I have too many firefighter friends to ever forget. I haven’t forgotten watching the tape of the first Tower burning and saying to my pal, over the phone, “it’s a beautiful clear day; no plane is going to accidently hit the WTC - this is NOT an accident,” and both of us gasping because, just as I said it, the second plane hit. I haven’t forgotten because my husband was on a plane that morning, traveling on business, and for a little while we didn’t know what flights we were looking at, exploding before our eyes. Those of us who had loved ones in planes heard about the Pentagon, and about a plane going down in Pennsylvania - there were reports (false) that a carbomb was discovered outside of the Supreme Court. My friend called me back, pleading and in shock - “what is happening, what is happening in our country!” Finally the phone call from my husband, trapped in Atlanta, and I was able to call my kids schools and tell the offices, “please, please tell my kids that their father wasn’t on any of those planes, that he is alright!” I remember Tom Brokaw’s voice as the endless loop of a plane slamming into a tower played, “This,” he intoned, gravely, “is war.” I remember watching doctors and nurses gathering in grim anticipation at hospitals, firefighters and police running into, not out of buildings, and the videotape made by a doctor as the first tower fell and he ducked behind a car, hoping to survive, “I hope I live,” he gasped, “I hope I live!” I remember Fr. Mychal Judge blessing firefighters and hearing hasty confessions before dying at the site, and being carried away…The doctors and nurses at every ER, waiting, waiting for the injured, for the bodies that never came - finally simply accepting that body parts - torsos and arms and legs and heads - were all they would receive. I remember the walls and columns downtown, plastered with pictures of the missing people. “Have you seen my son…” “We are newlyweds, my wife is missing…” “My daddy was at Cantor Fitzgerald!” “My brother, Jose, he was a waiter…” I remember pictures of people in the West Bank, dancing and whooping it up. I remember Rudy Giulinai walking through the streets of downtown New York and saying, “we’re going to be alright, this is going to make us stronger…” and calmly, kindly, consoling a distraught elderly lady with a hug. I remember him talking about body bags and answering the question, “how many do you think are dead?” He answered softly, “more than we can bear…” I remember thinking, after a few hours, that New York might be shut down for a while, and that it would be a good time to buy some provisions, the old standbys, milk, eggs, bread, water - and few other things, too. Propane. Duct tape. Tinned meat. I wandered through the nearly empty store, which was running a live news broadcast, and those of us shopping looked at each other as though we were ghosts, like we could see right through each other. “I wonder when the next shoe is going to drop,” one woman said to me as she filled a plastic bag with tomatoes and then, distracted and in shock, simply left it behind as she moved on to the bread aisle. Checking out in stunned silence, loading my groceries into the car, I looked up to see the empty, silent sky. No planes, no fluffy contrails. Just space - that startling, serene blue. An eerie, eerie silence. A few hours later, I heard my first fighter jet. I remember coming home and realizing that a cousin of mine was very likely in the Pentagon when it was hit (he was there - thankfully he was okay). I remember the funerals. For a while, for weeks, it seemed like you couldn’t drive through the town without running into a firefighter’s funeral, or a cop’s funeral - and all you could do was pull aside and salute as they went by, and wipe away the tears that simply would not stop coming. A friend of mine, a telephone company guy, was there, saw the planes hit, he saw the people jumping and jumping - holding hands and jumping. He heard the body’s slamming, bang! Bang! One after another, bang! Crash! And it took a while for him to stop drinking after that. I remember a neighbor and her husband bringing sandwiches and refreshments down to the tents of Ground Zero and telling me later that she could smell the stench of death for weeks. I remember the memorials, the congress spontaneously singing God Bless America on the steps of the Capital building. I remember that for the longest time I couldn’t seem to talk to anyone who didn’t know someone who had someone in the WTC, or at the Pentagon. I remember that when the terrorists used commerical airliners as bombs, they rode to their deaths with little toddlers on board, who had no idea what was going on, and who must have been terribly frightened when some people on the plane were suddenly restrained, or killed, and whose last moments in their short lives were so confusing. I remember a firefighter friend telling me what it was like to be in the tent, at Ground Zero, with the president as he met with the families of the dead, “he upheld us,” he said, tearing up at the memory. I remember the president speaking to congress and the nation -holding up the badge of a dead police officer and saying, “It is my reminder of lives that ended and a task that does not end. I will not forget the wound to our country and those who inflicted it. I will not yield, I will not rest, I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people. The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them. I remember knowing with absolute certainty that he meant every word, he was saying. We have seen their kind before. They’re the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends in history’s unmarked grave of discarded lies. Americans are asking, “How will we fight and win this war?” We will direct every resource at our command — every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of war — to the destruction and to the defeat of the global terror network. I remember Tony Blair, faithful and brave, telling the Parliment, “they killed 3,000. Had they been able to kill 30,000 or 300,000, they would have.” I remember knowing, four years ago, that terrorists were evil and that terrorism needed defeating. I thought we all knew it. I’m a New Yorker, and if it happens again in New York, I will hold these “pure, patriotically motivated” leakers (yes, they’re leakers) responsible, because they allowed their hate to take them too far. I will wonder how Harry Reid and the NY Times and the leakers and “anonymous sources” they have lionized can live with all the blood on their hands, even as they (predictably) immediately blame the White House for not “connecting the dots.” If it happens anywhere in America, (or, really, anywhere else) I will look toward the NY Times and the rest of the “pure, patriotically motivated” press and leftists, because they will have, by their actions and their rhetoric, enabled terrorists to move forward where they had perhaps formerly been stalled. By making the job of surveillance and information-sharing more difficult (drop the Patriot Act and Jamie Gorelick’s wall snaps back in place) and the terrorist’s job easier, they will have participated in something deadly - all because they wanted to “get” the president and keep him from succeeding - which means keep America from succeeding - which means keep the world from progressing away from the scourge of terrorism. If it happens again, if after we’ve been safe for nearly 5 years only to find - after these “noble” leaks - that we are safe no longer, I will know where to look. Most Americans will know where to look. It’s funny, in a way…the NY Times and the rest have damaged their own playing field. Had we been attacked - and they not leaked the NSA information - many in the country (those not convinced that a second attack is inevitable) would reflexively blame the White House for slacking off. Now, thanks to the leaks, and all the pontificating about them…well, if there is another attack, people will look not at Washington, but at West 43rd Street, and similar addresses. Where your heart is, there will your treasure be as well. It must take dark, dark hearts to be able to consciously decide that a “get” is more important than the safety of your fellow citizens, that helping terrorists is more noble than helping your government to defeat them. I remember this, too: Ellen Ratner saying to Linda Vestor on Fox News, “we’re just going to have to hope things don’t work out in Iraq, so we can take back the White House.” UPDATE: Hmmm…this is interesting. William Tate suggests that once upon a time, the NY Times thought the surveillance of terrorist was “a necessity”. The controversy following revelations that U.S. intelligence agencies have monitored suspected terrorist related communications since 9/11 reflects a severe case of selective amnesia by the New York Times and other media opponents of President Bush. They certainly didn’t show the same outrage when a much more invasive and indiscriminate domestic surveillance program came to light during the Clinton administration in the 1990’s. At that time, the Times called the surveillance “a necessity.” Well, of course they did! When the president has a D after his name, all of the standards are Different. D is for Different. When the president has an R after his name, he is always wrong. R is for wRong. And truth is a changable thing, after all. The Times, btw, had not leaked the Clinton surveillance program, named ECHELON. The Aussies did that, and they were probably wrong to. Still…You will want to read the whole thing. Really. WELCOME Michelle Malkin readers (and thanks, Michelle, for the Malkalanch!. While you’re here, please look around. We’re also talking about the restoration of the ancient Marshes in Iraq and why real human beings cry. http://theanchoressonline.com/2006/01/12/ny-times-tipped-terrorists/trackback/ 36 Responses to “NY Times tipped terrorists? (UPDATED)” |
January 13th, 2006 at 1:48 am
I thank you for this post which is so personal I feel as though I need to bow my head in embarrassment of you baring your soul to the world, and in thankfulness that we have not yet been attacked again like this, and for the employees of those stores who were on the look-out for these types of things.
May God continue to bless America!
January 13th, 2006 at 4:40 am
I think this is one of your best yet Anchoress. To think that some people will put a personal and political agenda before the safety of their countrymen….I am speechless when I consider it.
January 13th, 2006 at 9:31 am
[...] Others blogging about this: Anchoress, Brutally Honest, Flopping Aces, Right Voices, Mike’s America [...]
January 13th, 2006 at 11:06 am
WE ARE ALL HOMELAND SECURITY AGENTS
Picture this: You’re a retail store clerk. It’s the busy Christmas season. A half-dozen men of Middle Eastern/Southeast Asian descent walk into the store. They want to buy between 60-150 disposable cell phones–you know, the kind that can’t be trace…
January 13th, 2006 at 11:47 am
By virtue of profession I can’t get away from 9/11, as a result I’m often surprised how easily others find it to do so.
We still Remember the Alamo, why do we forget the World Trade Centers?
January 13th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Just think of this for a second, we only know about these two cases because concerned store clerks alerted the FBI. How many others do you suppose took place unreported? Given the number of locations that sell these phones and the lack of controls, I’m pretty sure the question is impossible to answer.
January 13th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
Excellent, excellent post. I’m one of those guilty of “forgetting” 9/11 in that it’s difficult, sometimes, for me to remember exactly how I felt that day. Your descriptions bring it all flooding back. We all need to have it rush back upon us on a regular basis.
January 13th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
Excellent post. I haven’t forgotten, either.
January 13th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
I haven’t forgotten, either. If there’s another terrorist attack, I will blame it on the NY Times. And I hope America does, too. They deserve to be out of circulation.
January 13th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
The NY Times should be tried for treason.
January 13th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
[...] And for a timely reminder of what we’re fighting against, read the 9/11 reminiscing of The Anchoress, a New Yorker. The people who hated us on 9/11 still hate us today, and have plainly stated that they intend to kill us in as large numbers as they can possibly manage. For what reason does half the country, including much of our Congressional ‘leadership’ refuse to take them at their word? [...]
January 13th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
An Appeal from Center-Right Bloggers
I’m pleased to present the following statement on behalf of the undersigned bloggers. -N.Z. An Appeal from Center-Right Bloggers We are bloggers with boatloads of opinions, and none of us come close to agreeing with any other one of us…
January 13th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Awesome post. Five years seems like a very long time ago, doesn’t it? What you’ve described here strikes me as part of a splitting and choosing and taking of sides that’s taking place on a much much larger world stage. It in the media and politics in this country. It is happening with Europe and our ‘allies’. What’s remarkable, of course, is that the president saw these two sides almost instantaneously and has known without a shadow of a doubt which one to be on - and more importantly that there is only one to be on. One choice to be made. History would have been very different with a ‘waffler’ at the helm.
January 13th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
I don’t think Gore is a waffler though. If it had happened on his watch, he might have yelled and screamed until he was red in the face that the U.N. must do something about it, then proceeded to tell our military to follow U.N. orders.
January 13th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Thank you Anchoress. When you sell out your countrymen in times of war, I believe it is called TREASON. That’s what these despicable political machinations are. I have not forgotten Sept 11, 2001.
January 13th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
"How to 'Connect the Dots'"
Andrew McCarthy, from the Jan 30 2006 issue of National Review:Washington’s scandal du jour involves a wartime surveillance program President Bush directed the National Security Agency to carry out after al-Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 Americans…
January 13th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
[...] The Anchoress discusses this issue in one of her classic posts, asking “[f]eeling pretty safe, are you? Pretty secure? Has 9/11 become a faded memory for you?” It is not a faded memory for her; if you read her post, it will no longer be faded for you. [...]
January 13th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
I haven’t forgotten. I watched the second jet hit the tower, while I watched on TV. I watched everything that was happening, emailing friends online to see if they heard anything new, different, from what I knew.
I was thankful that I was in Florida, far from the carnage. I cheered Bush’s speech. I supported it all.
When, not if, the next attack occurs, we may well see the NYTimes building stormed. Torn down. Rendered into rubble as its reputation has been for some time.
I will not forget.
January 13th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
I haven’t forgotten, but many have. There may well be a reminder. I shudder to think what form it will take.
My sympathies are instinctively libertarian, but I’m wondering whether the Times’ action warrants serious jail time. The damage done by Skilling, Lay, Ebbers et al is trivial compared to what the smug fools at the NYT may have wrought.
January 13th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
Commenter #5 said:
“We still remember the Alamo, why do we forget the World Trade Centers?”
We remember the Alamo partly because of the heroism of those who defended it. The defenders bought time for Sam Houston to raise an army which routed Santa Anna, in under 20 minutes, at San Jacinto.
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Our mythmakers have largely ignored the heroism attached to the World Trade Center towers. Our poets, musicians, and moviemakers have preferred a victim narrative to a heroic narrative.
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That deserves to change. You ask me, it wouldn’t have been too hard for 40,000 people to have died when those towers collapsed. Everyone who contributed to less than 3,000 dying is a hero - from the archetects to the construction workers to the office workers who bravely exited without panicking and crushing each other, to the firement and policemen who ran in. IN! God bless those men.
`
How much bigger a propaganda victory would 10,000 deaths have been? 20,000? 40,000? Everyone who contributed to holding that death count down was fighting back against Al Qaeda - even the office workers who exited in orderly and unpanicked fashion. We’re in a dang propaganda war anyway - a fight for hearts and minds. New Yorkers tamped down the size of Osama’s victory just as surely as Alamo defenders long ago delayed the swiftness of Santa Anna’s victory. New Yorkers refused to passively die. New Yorkers refused to panic and die. New Yorkers refused to every man for himself, and they stuck a finger in Osama’s eye.
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Remember 9/11! The cruelty. And the HEROISM.
January 14th, 2006 at 12:32 am
Thespis Journal Inaugurates “Posts of The Week”
As I read my way around the blogosphere/internet this week, I was impressed with the ever increasing quality of written work that is produced on the internet and in the blogs. I watched and listened with great curosity as Ian Schwartz, and others repor…
January 14th, 2006 at 1:32 am
NSA Leak Connected To Surge Is Disposable Cell Phone Purchases?
The Astute Blogger suggests that the recently reported surge in sales of disposable cell phones may be linked to The New York Times leak of the classified NSA program which monitored calls of suspected Al Qaeda terrorists into the United…
January 14th, 2006 at 4:42 am
New Yorkers refused to passively die. New Yorkers refused to panic and die. New Yorkers refused to every man for himself, and they stuck a finger in Osama’s eye.
Comment by gcotharn
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And then they went and voted for Kerry over Bush 73.82% to 22.76%
January 14th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
[...] The Anchoress takes on the Times leak theme. A lot of blogs, including this one, have commented on the obvious connection between yesterday’s news of large-scale disposable cell-phone purchases by suspicious persons in a variety of cities and last month’s New York Times’ story on secret NSA communications surveillance, but n0 matter how many of these you have already read, you’ll still want to take the time to read this one. I see 23 trackbacks already, but I’m adding another. By JDZ Feedbacks on this entry via RSS 2.0 Please leave a Comment or discuss via Trackback! Comments Please Leave a Comment! [...]
January 14th, 2006 at 6:53 pm
Thank you Anchoress for the reminder.
January 14th, 2006 at 11:58 pm
Thank you!! No one has said it better than you did in this post. I wish it were required reading for every American. As you said in another post Al Gore will talk about George Bush’s Police State with the full knowledge that it is a lie. We have reached the point, unfortunately, where I seriously have to question the motives of any commentator who attacks the administration’s efforts to stop terrorism here and abroad. What the heck happened between “Ask not what your country can do for you….” and now. From JFK to the blob of protoplasm. It is hard to stomach.
January 15th, 2006 at 6:19 am
Dear Anchoress
This was another one of your GREAT posts. It’s so filled with feelings, emotions…actually I don’t find good words to describe it. I WAS THERE. And I’ve never been to NYC, not even close. Great post, Anchoress, once more you are inspired by the Spirit to write an outstanding and moving post.
God bless you and your dear ones always.
January 17th, 2006 at 7:42 am
[...] PIMPING FOR OSAMA: NY Times tipped terrorists? …. (theanchoressonline) [...]
January 20th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
[...] The winning non-Council post was The Anchoress’s post, “NY Times Tipped Terrorists?”. Tied for second place were Liberty and Culture’s post, “Bloggers: The Pamphleteers of Today” and The American Thinker’s post, “Photo Fakery at the New York Times”. [...]
January 20th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
[...] In the non council category the winner was NY Times Tipped Terrorists? (UPDATED) by The Anchoress. We have a three way tie for second with Bloggers: The Pamphleteers of Today by Liberty and Culture, Photo Fakery at the New York Times by The American Thinker and Iran’s New Threat, the UN and the U.S. by The Moderate Voice. [...]
January 21st, 2006 at 1:11 pm
Very good article. I have always thought W should drape a picture of the WTC’s over the podium whenever and whereever he speaks. Personally, I don’t need the reminder. As Patton famously said, “When you put your hand in a pile of goo that a moment before was you best friend’s face, you will know what to do.” I know what to do. This will only end when all the middle east has changed to democracies and the west tells any dictator types to pack up or be blown up. Currently we don’t have the will. Only another attack, much bigger, will wake up the dems and rino’s whose stock and trade is not protecting us, but gathering money for the next election. Then the Japanese internments will seem mild by comparison.
January 24th, 2006 at 9:39 pm
[...] Go check out The Anchoress to see how the NYT leak has hurt the cause. * Category: Uncategorized , Politics , Domestic Policy , Foreign Policy , War on Terror , Da’ Law * Comments:   [...]
January 31st, 2006 at 8:55 am
[...] Both the Strata-Sphere and the Anchoress took on the Times from slightly different angles in a blogging wolfpack. My Council partner looked at the veracity of the paper’s claims over the past couple of weeks and found it sorely lacking while The Anchoress accused the paper of tipping off terrorists in very critical ways, something it’s surely done with its coverage. [...]
September 5th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
[...] I don’t especially need to “remember” 9/11. I remember it, exceedingly well, indeed and in much detail. But I’m going to remember the days and weeks after 9/11 and wonder exactly how it is that some people can willfully forget or misunderstand so much. [...]
November 3rd, 2006 at 9:20 am
[...] So, the NY Times twirls its mustache and writes:Stupid Evil Bush Reveals Saddam’s Nuke Plans, and He was Only a Year Away from Having Nukes and….and…. Times Peon #1: HOLY CRAP, Mr. Keller, did we just validate everything Dick Cheney and Colin Powell and stupid evil George Bush said to the UN? When we’re spilling secrets, we’re not supposed to do that! [...]
September 11th, 2007 at 11:28 am
[...] I wrote this in January of 2006, when the NSA wiretapping program was leaked. Reposting it today because it reflects my memories of [...]