The terrorists arrested in Germany had a deadline for their attack on Ramstein Air Base and the Frankfurt airport, given to them by their al-Qaeda masters: September 15th. Why that date, rather than the more obvious 9/11 anniversary? AQ has more current politics in mind: Three suspected Islamist militants who were planning to attack U.S. installations in Germany had orders to act by Sept. 15 and knew police were hot on their trail before their arrest, a magazine said on Saturday.
Congress set a deadline on September 15th as well -- the due date for a progress report on the Iraq War from President Bush. AQ wanted to replicate the Tet offensive, only not in Iraq but in Europe. A devastating attack before Bush delivered his report would tend to discredit the forward strategy pursued by the administration since the 9/11 attacks. Why attack Europe? Osama wants the US out of the Middle East, especially Iraq and Afghanistan.
Chalk one up for the NSA. Nice work, folks.
|
But why do we insist reporting how they were caught? Dumb would be a charitable way to assess it...
Posts
