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FBI: Al Qaeda May Strike Shopping Malls in LA, Chicago

I just saw this on the Drudge Report. Now, I wonder why they would pick LA and Chicago instead of say; Houston and Miami. Think it could have anything to do with the fact that they can be pretty sure no armed citizens will spoil their plans by shooting them dead before they did much damage.

you just hit the nail on the head.

That dont take Perry Mason to figure out.
Those places would be safe to "WORK" in & in the Peoplse Republic OF LA they might even get some help setting up.

http://abcnews.go.com/images/Blotter/FB ... 071108.pdf

Yawn...

Sorry...Obviously, just the re-iteration of what we've known for years, much longer than this intelligence brief states doesn't surprise me at all...

Am I concerned??? Always have been...A reminder like this making the news is just redundant...

I've been vigilant longer than some people have been alive...

What can we do about it??? And what will we do about it???

Well...Then thats the gut-check you have to do...Nobody else up the chain of command can do anything more either, than what is being done now...

Didn't we have another alert like this last year??? And the year before???

Good observation TEX!

The terrorists may be crazy, but they know that in Texas there would be return fire

Paladin wrote:Good observation TEX!

The terrorists may be crazy, but they know that in Texas there would be return fire

A suicide bomber doesn't care.

LA and Chicago are much higher visibility targets. Although I know we are all proud of our "tough' state, I would be 100% surprised if Al Qaeda gave that a second thought.

txinvestigator wrote:

Paladin wrote:Good observation TEX!

The terrorists may be crazy, but they know that in Texas there would be return fire

A suicide bomber doesn't care.

LA and Chicago are much higher visibility targets. Although I know we are all proud of our "tough' state, I would be 100% surprised if Al Qaeda gave that a second thought.

I agree...I do not think it matters...

Put yourself again into a senario like a soft target mass shooting or bombing...

What do you think you or anyone is going to do right at that second?

We've role played this till we are blue in the face...

There are NO upsides or advantages at all for anyone concerned or involved...Once the BG's are ready and on their way...We've lost...

Sorry to be such a party-pooper, but sometimes reality does kick in, and it hurts sometimes more than it should...

I wouldn't be surprised if some Internet retailer "leaked" this out to help their Christmas season. Or maybe I'm just real cynical.

A mall just doesn't seem like a probable location for a significant attack. During the holiday season, going to one is like jumping into a rampaging flood. You have millions of square feet filled with thousands of moving people coming in and out of hundreds of entrances and exits on multiple floors. A chaotic location that may appeal to the lone nut on a rampage, but not to someone who is looking to cause real damage. Seems to me a jihadi would want to cause chaos, not walk into it.

Terrorists are just like the name says; they are looking to do something to strike terror into the general populace. Volume of killed or extent of damage is not as important as they getting their message across and the impact to our way of life.

Hitting soft targets, like a mall, is a method that would get lots of publicity, and potentially cause a big financial impact to the retail community during their biggest time of the year by causing people across the country from going to malls and shopping. Impacting the economy is just another way to hurt us. Just look at what happened after 9/11 to the economy and stock market.

The other thing to remember, we are not only at risk from forgein-based terrorist organizations, but there are many here we are exposed to that don't get as high a public attention.

Our job is to be watchful, report suspicious activity and get right back up if they hit us (which WILL happen again someday.)

Whoever they are, where ever and whenever they hit, they will try to demoralize and instill fear (terror) in their intended victims.

During the holiday season, ... You have millions of square feet filled with thousands of moving people coming in and out of hundreds of entrances and exits on multiple floors.

Exactly why it could be a good place to predict an attack could occur. Aside from a sports stadium where else could you find a concentrated number of people at one time?

would want to cause chaos

Which would be what would happen if one lone nut walked into a cheery mall filled with the hustle & bustle, lights and sounds of thousands of excited families preparing for the holidays --- and set off a bomb or released some kind of biological agent.

Hit our buildings, they can be repaired, rebuilt.
Hit our hearts -- not so easy to mend

I think it is because terrorists also dislike Yankee's and Commifornians.

I think the terrorist like to talk about attacking malls, because this is what more people identify with. Its scarier. Blowing up football stadiums just makes more sense to a terrorist. folks are packed shoulder to shoulder, and the live TV coverage will give them a huge television audience. News coverage is what they really want. Crying whimpering people on our TVs is what they are willing to die for. Body count doesn't really matter to them its just a means to their goal.

txinvestigator wrote:

Paladin wrote:Good observation TEX!

The terrorists may be crazy, but they know that in Texas there would be return fire

A suicide bomber doesn't care.

LA and Chicago are much higher visibility targets. Although I know we are all proud of our "tough' state, I would be 100% surprised if Al Qaeda gave that a second thought.

txinvestigator nailed it. LA and Chicago are higher profile cities. I doubt Al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization for that matter, could care less about some of the other things mentioned.

Geopagus wrote:

txinvestigator wrote:

Paladin wrote:Good observation TEX!

The terrorists may be crazy, but they know that in Texas there would be return fire

A suicide bomber doesn't care.

LA and Chicago are much higher visibility targets. Although I know we are all proud of our "tough' state, I would be 100% surprised if Al Qaeda gave that a second thought.

txinvestigator nailed it. LA and Chicago are higher profile cities. I doubt Al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization for that matter, could care less about some of the other things mentioned.

Doesn't anyone remember the Tom Clancy novel, "The Teeth of the Tiger"? Early in the book, jihadists launch coordinated attacks at a number of major shopping malls. They don't bomb them, they hose down crowds with machine guns.

In several cities there are significant casualties. But the attack in Utah was quickly blunted by armed citizens, and the one in suburban VA was stopped by an off duty FBI agent and his non-LEO CHL-holding pal.

Before dismissing this as "just something from a novel", remember that another Clancy novel, "Debt of Honor" ends with a JAL airline pilot, crazed by the loss of his father and brother in a brief conflict fought with the USA, crashed his fully-laden (though empty of passengers) 747 into the Capitol building in DC at the very moment that the president was addressing a joint session of Congress - destroying the building and killing everyone inside.

I don't know about any of you guys, but that was the first time I had ever heard or read of the idea of someone doing that.