West Coast a target for terrorists?
New York City was in virtual lockdown this week after federal and local law-enforcement authorities warned of threats against the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Law enforcement authorities said the warning was based on information that came during interrogation of an Al Qaeda detainee. But, as The New York Times reported, there were no specifics about the plot. No estimated time. No probable method of attack.
And what really troubled were the remarks of an unnamed senior law-enforcement official. “The credibility of it, we don’t know. It is unverified, and we don’t have a level of credibility. But it does come from a detainee.”
What that suggests is that all a detainee has to say is “boo” and New York City will go to code red. Even if the detainee is really just some low level Al Qaeda grunt who doesn’t know jack about what Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants have planned.
Even if the detainee was just as surprised as the rest of us when Mohamed Atta and his fellow suicide hijackers pulled off the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
I have a hunch the plethora of threats against New York since Sept. 11 is really misdirection, that the West Coast will be the next target of terrorist infiltrators here in the United States.
I have no “specific” and “credible” evidence of a coming attack on San Francisco or Los Angeles or San Diego. I have interviewed no Guantanamo detainees.
But there is more than enough circumstantial evidence to point to some kind of terror attack on a West Coast metropolis. Enough that the FBI ought to be on the case 24-7.
Indeed, in court documents newly released this month, a State Department official said that San Diego was a primary focus of post-Sept. 11 terror investigations “because of the high number of hijackers and associates who lived, worked and studied in the area.”
Three of the hijackers on the plane that struck the Pentagon had San Diego connections. And four other people from San Diego were arrested as material witnesses in the attacks, three of whom were later charged with various crimes.
It doesn’t strain credulity to speculate that at least some members of the San Diego-based terrorist cell managed to avoid detection in the wake of Sept. 11. and that they have gone into sleeper mode until the next terror opportunity presents itself.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed this month that “25 Islamic extremists” have stolen into the country aboard commercial cargo vessels. Authorities identified Long Beach as one of their three ports of entry.
Then there is The Los Angeles Times revelation this month that federal authorities suspect security escort guards hired by major airlines at Los Angeles International Airport have smuggled international passengers from the Middle East into the country.
So, what kind of West Coast attack might bin Laden’s operatives attempt?
Well, there could be any number of targets. Last year, it might be recalled, Gov. Gray Davis warned the public of possible attacks on major bridges in West Coast states. He specifically mentioned the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge in San Francisco, the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles and the Coronado Bridge in San Diego.
Just this month, in fact, a Mexican tractor-trailer loaded with 10 tons of deadly cyanide was hijacked. The stolen truck was eventually found, but it is unclear whether all 96 drums of the toxic chemical were recovered.
New York seems an obvious target for yet another terror strike. But it just may happen that, while the eyes of the nation are looking east, the next attack is against a West Coast city.
(Joseph Perkins is a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune and can be reached at [email protected].)