Small states aren’t safe from al Qaeda

by Stan Lowe, Chairman (retired), Wyoming Veterans’ Commission
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 2:14 PM MDT

A Pennsylvanian, Michael C. Reynolds, described by the prosecution as a “would-be al Qaeda sympathizer,” recently was convicted on two counts of providing material support to terrorists and other charges.

These crimes involved plans to blow up the Williams Partners, L.P., natural gas plant near Opal, Wyo., together with two other energy related facilities in other parts of the country.

The jury, which took only 90 minutes to convict, didn’t buy his defense arguments.

He contended he was working as a private citizen trying to uncover terrorist plots. This was why he spent that month on an Internet bulletin board favored by admirers of Osama bin Laden, exchanging numerous computer messages with an FBI undercover agent, laying out his plan to blow up those energy facilities and asking for money to do it.

Prosecutors stated he wanted to work with al Qaeda by appealing to its cells in Canada and the U.S., and he may have wanted money owed for back child support.

An anti-war advocate, he thought his scheme would end the war in Iraq because troops would have to be brought home to protect the nation’s energy infrastructure. He wrote, “The plan is about recall of foreign troops home, as well as firing of their boss, making further troubles from them impossible.”

In another computer message, Reynolds wrote that he selected Williams’ Opal plant as the first target because “on Dec. 24, 2005 … presumably there would be less security.”

He explained, “The site has no fences or security to speak of, 3 men would merely walk as they wished there and leave undetected. … Minimum forces, maximum damage.”

This sort of thinking tells us that contrary to popular opinion, small-populated states won’t be spared from al Qaeda attacks because fewer people would be killed for the news media to sensationalize. No matter where located, energy facilities, which make America’s industrial and automotive wheels turn, are high on the priority list.

So in the more than five years since the War on Terror began, what’s been done to make those facilities and other critically essential ones secure?

Not enough, states Col. David Hunt, U.S. Army (Ret.), in his book that pulls no punches “On the Hunt: How to Wake Up Washington and Win the War on Terror.”

A military expert and frequent commentator on Fox News, Hunt lists other vulnerabilities of our nation.

One is nuclear power plants. Terrorists already have them in their sights. U.S. forces in 2001 found drawings of American nuclear plants in al Qaeda’s caves.

Another is our vast network of train tracks, particularly around cities. Hunt says, “We are very good at protecting, or at least looking like we are protecting, our airports, but we aren’t even pretending to protect our rail transportation infrastructures.”

The good news is there are very knowledgeable experts working on this. Recommendations include fencing rights-of-way, effective lighting, drone airplanes for track patrol, intrusion detection equipment, etc.

Drinking water is another one. Damage or destruction by terrorists would disrupt availability of safe drinking water and other water-related services, such as fire fighting.

We are far behind where we should be in dealing with these and other dangerous vulnerabilities. Hunt faults the industrialized nations’ leaders and people for not taking the terrorist threat seriously enough.

He says, “This is a mistake. We think that because there hasn’t been a recent attack on us, we are safer. It isn’t true! We are more at risk now than we ever were.

“Apathy feeds and enables terrorism. It allows us to look the other way. While we are looking the other way, men in caves, who are not apathetic, work toward one thing n- our destruction.”

He adds, “I want us to get un-apathetic. I want Americans to get engaged. This war and its burdens are currently being borne by our soldiers and their families and them alone. The rest of us are not doing our part. If this keeps up, we will lose this war.”

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