Bin Laden’s Plans for Global Fireball
22 October 2008: Several people watched as a large balloon drifted over the Trinity National Forest, slowly descending until it came to rest atop a sixty foot tall dead fir tree in Hayfork, a town about 40 miles west of Redding, California. A crowed watched as the balloon swayed with the wind, a strange apparatus attached to its underside. Contacted by witnesses, authorities responded to the area, moving bystanders away and blocking a local road that passed near the edge of the forest where the balloon had landed. Suddenly just after dusk, a loud explosion rocked the area, igniting dead timber and brush which was quickly extinguished by the first responders who were thankfully on the scene. Otherwise, the fire could have consumed much of the forest due to drought conditions and the cause and origin of the fire might have never became known, or listed as accidental or natural in origin.
A close inspection of the balloon and its remaining attachments following the explosion found that the balloon contained four incendiary bombs and one larger, high explosive bomb with a specially designed releasing mechanism. Authorities warned the witnesses not to say anything about what they saw.
It’s known as asymmetrical warfare, and there are many who still don’t understand the concept or believe that it exists today.
The above incident took place on February 1, 1945. The balloon was one of thousands sent aloft by our Japanese enemy, sent to cause damage to the infrastructure of the United States. The attack had to be conducted from a distance, as a large scale investigation of Japanese nationals had resulted in the detention of many potential saboteurs already in place in the United States. If such a detention in our post-Pearl Harbor society was controversial over a half century ago, the detention of suspected Islamic terrorists of all origins following the 9/11 attacks (or a future attack) would lack support from all camps (pun intended), but I digress.
In an article published yesterday by WorldNetDaily, it was disclosed that documents recovered in a raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Pakistan contained instructions for a "global fireball" by lighting forest fires in the U.S. and other Western countries. Such plans by our enemies are not new, nor are they original. Today, our enemies do not have to set balloons aloft in hopes that some make it across the Pacific Ocean. Our enemies are already here, and all they have to do, and have done, is start such fires in strategic areas of our national forests. It is important for everyone to understand that we are engaged in asymmetrical warfare like no other time in our history, and in many instances, Islamic terrorist leaders are better historians than we are. A famous quote attributed to U.S. philosopher George Santayana is “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Perhaps we not only need to remember the past, but to gain a better understanding of the present.
I am convinced that our skewed idea of the inappropriately termed “war against terrorism” has doomed us to failure. Most Americans are convinced that the US has not suffered any terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists since 9/11, which is a boastful and not entirely truthful claim supported by the current administration that has been trying to fight our enemies in a politically correct manner. There is no indication that the next administration will change for the better.
It was four years ago this month when I was a guest on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory discussing various domestic terrorist threats posed by al Qaeda, including their plans to intentionally set forest fires in order to “destroy the West” and weaken our internal defense and infrastructure. Last night, I was back on Coast to Coast where listeners were reminded that documents recovered in a raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Pakistan containing instructions for a "global fireball" have existed in various incarnations for years.
In 2003 we began seeing directives posted on Internet forums – instructional posts to terrorists in this country to actually start fires in the US to weaken our infrastructure and deplete our resources.
After all, arson is easier than hijacking planes, and can be more deadly and costly. The fires last year at this time in Southern California cost more than $1 billion in lost property and displaced more than a million people, the greatest evacuation California has ever seen. The massive Santiago Canyon Fire caused an estimated $10 million in damage alone. The cause of many fires in the southwestern U.S. last year was arson, and those who started some of the fires have yet to be identified or caught.
Indeed, there are plans to attack the U.S. from within. Many plans involve arson, other plans are much more elaborate. Regardless, this country continues to be under attack. As with the ignorance about the nature of the war we are fighting, unfortunately, this is nothing new.