Friday, October 14, 2005

Mistakes of the past can be repeated in the future

Mistakes of the past can be repeated in the future, when we ignore warning signs of terrorism

In regards to my previous post:
There is history of Jihadists acting out in such a manner and planning similar
incidents in Europe, Israel, and other countries. It is not a matter of if, it
is a matter of when it is coming to the United States of America. We denied that
planes would be used in this country until 9/11/2001. We were caught ill
prepared with our heads in the sand.
Come to think of it, we did know about airline bomb plots in the mid 1990s. There was an assassination plot hatched by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Manila in the early to mid 1990s, I think about 1993 - 1995.

After the plot was broken up in 1995, the information was release to the news media. In about 1996, I was in Manila and personally spoke with Philippine police sergeant who was involved in rounding up some of the terrorists. He told me about a plot to use some US airlines to blow up and terrorize in several locations overseas. This was to take place at the same time that Pope John Paul II was going to be assassinated. I think that Pope John Paul II may have been a diversion for the airliner events. The sergeant went on to say that there was going to be a third strike in the United States afterward. I am foggy on the details. Fortunately the plot was uncovered and stopped due to some mistakes that were made in a Manila hotel. These Jihadist turned out not to be so bright after all and made some gross mistakes and almost burned down a hotel in the process. Authorities discovered that Yousef and his Jihadist had already made several dry runs and were possibly linked to an explosion in Philippines airlines flight from Manila to Tokyo in December 1994 that killed on Japanese tourist.

Shortly after the World Trade Center disaster in 2001, the information regarding Yousef's plans were republished in the media. But, most of the mainstream media (MSM) did not take notice and the story died down. Perhaps because some of the blame could be focused on our past administration, 1992- 2000. The 9/11 Commission did not take much notice of those early years of al-Qaeda and Middle East terrorism. My point is, that we put our heads in the sand from the mid-1990s until 2001, so, we can do it again. You can read more details of the Philippine terrorist operation in Wikipedia encyclopedia Operation Bojinka

I found some additional sources of information besides my personal recollections that can provide some intereresting details: