23 Sep 2001 06:09 US warns of another possible attack this week-Jiji

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOKYO, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The United States has warned its allies of a possible second round of attacks by the end of this week following the deadly recent strikes against New York and Washington, Jiji news agency quoted Japanese government sources as saying.

The next round of attacks, if really launched, would be on an even greater scale than those on September 11, which killed more than 6,000 people, according to information provided to Japan by the United States, Jiji said.

The news agency quoted the sources as saying on Saturday that the "means of terrorism" would be "more cruel and shocking" than in the September 11 carnage, when hijackers flew airliners into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington.

The targets of the possible attacks were unknown but possibilities included members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Pakistan, Jiji said.

The government sources said attacks on Japan could not be ruled out since Tokyo has expressed support for U.S. retaliation against the September 11 strikes.

The United States has judged that a second round of attacks, if carried out, is likely by the end of this week at the latest, the sources said.

Japan's public security authorities have gone on heightened alert since receiving the information from the United States.

Washington suspects that a group led by fugitive Saudi-born millionaire Osama bin Laden has been contemplating attacks using biological and chemical weapons, such as sarin nerve gas, for years, according to the sources.

The United States has information that the group has already acquired small airplanes to spray bacteria causing smallpox or anthrax from the air, Jiji quoted the sources as saying.

Time magazine reported on Saturday that investigators had found a crop-dusting manual during a search for those responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington, triggering concern that crop-dusting planes might be used for chemical or biological assaults.

The FBI in Washington said it had not seen the report and had no comment on it.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T133249

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 23, 2001

Answers

Think of the straight path a suicide pilot of a crop dusting plane would have, coming in under radar, right down Fifth Av. in New York, or Pennsylvania Av. in Washington, D.C., spraying a load of Anthrax. Casualties would not be a mere 6,000, they would be in the millions.

Looks to me like the terrorists are in a position to virtually wipe out our civilization, if we don't get on this thing, all out, and I mean yesterday.

-- Wellesley (wellesley@freeport.net), September 23, 2001.