Originally posted by lukster
Their pictures have been on the news, how could he not notice their race?
...ummm, I'm sure he knows that they're black. What I find interesting is how you assume that anyone who sees someone black must obviously assume that they must be incompetent as a result. I suspect that he didn't take them seriously because their spokesman sounded like a loon.
Originally posted by lukster
As I mentioned (asked actually), guys whose only weapon was a box cutter took down the wtc. One guy took out the fed building in Oklahoma for very little money. A couple of highschoolers killed many people in Columbine and very nearly killed hundreds more. Only a moron wouldn't take a plot by 7 adults to kill thousands of people seriously.
You have neglected some resources that the other attacks had. The WTC folks had a bit more than boxcutters. I've read that the 9/11 operation cost $500,000. Additionally, all the attaclers attended Terrorist Summer Camp in Afghanistan, and others had experience leading Mujahadeen style attacks against the Soviets.
The Oklahoma City attack was masterminded by ex-military guys who were bankrolled by someone, I don't know what the cost of the operation was. It may have been inconsequential, but I think you're deluding yourself if you think the buck stopped w/ Nichols & McVeigh.
Columbine? Yep, that sucked. They conspired, then planned, built weapons caches, gathered ammunition, documented their timelines, then attacked. You might want to read up on the level of detail they followed, there were a bunch of different spots where they might have been caught, but unlike the Sears Tower guys (at least, according to publicly available info as of right now), those guys weren't even past the "Hey, why don't we blow it up?" stage, nowhere near the "here's how we do it", much less the "Ok, here's the plan" phases.
If you think I'm defending these guys, you're mistaken. I'm a citizen of this country. I vote, and I expect my government to do what it's supposed to do. When the people who work for me (the gubment) jump the gun too early then proceed to make a big press event out of it anyhow, I'm not happy. If they let something go too far, I'm also not happy. Sucks to be them, it's hard to find that sweet spot where they have let the plan develop enough that the prosecution will be solid but not so far that it is actually in danger of happening.
If these guys are bad guys and they walk because the government messed up, I will be displeased, and you should be too. If they are not actually dangerous and the government misses a REAL plot because they were focussed on this, then I will also be displeased.
What's YOUR defense?
