JINSA Report #581 Plotting and Uncovering Plots

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July 7, 2006

JINSA Report #581

Plotting and Uncovering Plots

If you were investigating a plot to blow up the Holland Tunnel and flood
lower Manhattan, a la lower New Orleans, would you rather have The New
York Times or the government of Lebanon as your ally? The Supreme Court
(which ruled that terror suspects have rights under the Uniform Code of
Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions even though they are neither
American service personnel - to whom the UCMJ pertains - nor adherents
to the requirements of the Convention) or the government of Lebanon? The
Italian judiciary or the government of Lebanon?

Score one for Lebanon.

Amir Andalousli, a suspected member of al Qaeda, was arrested in Beirut.
The Lebanese government had planned to announce the arrest, according to
The Daily News (NY), but when the U.S. expressed interest in him, "U.S.
agents were allowed to take part in the interrogation of Andalousli" and
the investigation was "kept under wraps for months while the FBI and NY
police worked to arrest co-conspirators."

How do you suppose U.S. agents learned about the plot? President Bush
once said, "If al Qaeda is calling you, we want to know why." It is
unclear whether NSA wiretaps on phone calls coming into the country from
known/suspected al Qaeda sources overseas had anything to do with it,
but we imagine so and hope so as we wonder whether that investigative
resource has closed in the intervening months because of the NYT story.

And we should be pleased that Andalousli was captured neither here nor
in Italy. Italian judicial authorities are currently seeking the
extradition of 22 CIA agents and decapitating their own Military
Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI), NOT over an intelligence
FAILURE, but over SUCCESSFUL cooperation with the U.S. According to the
Italian press, the director of SISMI's division dealing with
international terrorism and the head of the agency's operations in
northern Italy have been arrested for cooperating in the arrest of a
radical Egyptian cleric believed to have fought in Afghanistan and
Bosnia and served as a recruiting agent for al Qaeda. (In the heart of
Europe, Bosnia is now a major center for terrorist recruitment and
transit.) We don't think the Italians would have invoked the UCMJ for
Andalousli had they caught him, but the rights of identified soldiers
belonging to signatories of the Geneva Convention surely would have been
accorded the terrorist planning to blow up the Holland Tunnel. And they
probably wouldn't have allowed U.S. investigators to interrogate him,
lest we ask harsh questions.

The tunnel scheme, it appears was based on faulty engineering
principles, however the plan was apparently far more serious and
advanced than the "Miami Seven" operation detailed last week by the FBI.
Even if they couldn't flood lower Manhattan, a bomb in the tunnel would
have been catastrophic for New York and for the country. Bravo to the
FBI, the CIA and - oddly - thank you to the government of Lebanon for
applying what mechanisms still exist to capture those who seek our
destruction.

To view this JINSA Report online click on the link below.
http://www.jinsa.org/JINSAReports/3455

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