HOMELAND INSECURITY
'Schoolchildren' shot
in terror training tape
New York Post confirms WND's 2002 report on al-Qaida videos, golf course assassinations
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Posted: March 9, 2003
6:10 p.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Videos depicting a mock al-Qaida siege of schools and golf course assassinations are now being reported by other news agencies, confirming an exclusive report by WorldNetDaily last year.
The New York Post says the al-Qaida tapes include the rehearsed shooting of schoolchildren and the taking of hostages.
The training exercise reportedly took place under the guidance of al-Qaida operations chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks who is now in U.S. custody.
The location was an abandoned school in Mir Bach Kot, Afghanistan, north of Kabul, a hotbed of al-Qaida activity before the U.S. and allied forces ousted the Taliban.
Former Green Beret Keith "Jack" Idema discovered the tapes in an abandoned house while serving as an adviser to the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.
He says the video shows bullet-ridden blackboards and cut-out targets in classrooms, apparently representing students and teachers.
"Knowing al-Qaida trained to take out a presidential motorcade or an office building is scary, but nothing is more frightening than their training to take over a school," Idema told the Post. "In a classroom in a camp near Jalalabad, we found little desks with bullet holes in them and the backs of the chairs each had seven or eight bullet holes in them. They were definitely aiming to hit critical mass."
Portions of the tapes viewed by the newspaper showed a hostage-taking exercise and three scenarios where masked men, armed with AK-47s, pistols and hand grenades, storm a school-like brick building. In one assault, two gunmen rappel from the roof onto a ledge and wait for the go-ahead via two-way radio.
The Post recounts the school assault in detail:
"Two of the kidnappers are sitting in the cafeteria," a narrator says in Arabic.
At the command "move!" a janitor sweeping a hallway inside drops his broom and pulls out a gun. Others burst into rooms, fire automatic weapons and bark English commands at a group of children and adults, apparently locals and other camp residents co-opted for the exercise.
"Sit," a hooded terrorist yells to the children, who shriek in horror. "Don't move, don't move," he says. The children are made to kneel and place their hands on the walls while adults stand with hands raised and are frisked.
The armed thugs then herd their captives down the hallways as they shout in English, "Go in here!" and "Don't move!" Some hostages are then ordered to the roof.
"I don't want to go," one sham victim pleads in Arabic.
"Go before I kill you," a rifle-toting thug barks back.
The camera then zooms in on a terrorist, who stomps on a child.
On the rooftop, a lookout announces the arrival of police. A terrorist then drags a "hostage" to the ledge for display.
The Post says other training exercises include an attack at a mock golf outing, as men dressed as caddies drop their bags, pull out guns and open fire.
"This is how we will kill the world leaders," the narrator says in Arabic.
As WorldNetDaily reported in September, an al-Qaida training videotape, captured in Afghanistan, shows Osama bin Laden's terrorists are not only planning attacks with weapons of mass destruction but are preparing to kill Americans with drive-by shootings and home break-ins, through ambushes of law-enforcement officers and targeted assassinations on golf courses.
The training video shows al-Qaida operatives practicing the following kinds of assaults:
using pickup trucks with shooters concealed in the bed of the trucks;
using motorcycles as a shooting platform for drive-bys and assassinations;
execution of prisoners;
ambushes of law-enforcement officers;
residential assassinations;
assassination on a golf course using a rocket-propelled grenade and rifle fire;
drive-up kidnapping of target walking on a street;
use of tunnels, storm drains and sewers for infiltration during urban raids;
rappelling from rooftops of buildings to make entry on upper floors;
use of motorcycles for grenade attacks; and
raids on buildings with large numbers of occupants – perhaps schools or office buildings.
In one scenario on the video, terrorists pretend to be stranded on a six-lane highway, their vehicle disabled. When a police officer stops to assist, the driver blows his horn. Another occupant of the vehicle opens fire on the police officer with a rifle. In other scenarios, shooters were concealed in the trunk of the car. When the terrorists were picked up by accomplices in a getaway car, the original vehicle was blown up, apparently to destroy evidence.
In another scenario, an innocuous-looking terrorist knocks on the door of a residence, standing in view of the resident and answering questions through a closed door. When the resident opens the door, the terrorist immediately draws his weapon and fires, emptying his weapon into the victim.
In the golf course assassination, the target was on the green, near the hole. A rocket-propelled grenade is fired at a vehicle adjacent to the green, perhaps a security detail. Then the target of the assassination is killed with rifle fire.
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'Schoolchildren' shot
in terror training tape
New York Post confirms WND's 2002 report on al-Qaida videos, golf course assassinations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: March 9, 2003
6:10 p.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Videos depicting a mock al-Qaida siege of schools and golf course assassinations are now being reported by other news agencies, confirming an exclusive report by WorldNetDaily last year.
The New York Post says the al-Qaida tapes include the rehearsed shooting of schoolchildren and the taking of hostages.
The training exercise reportedly took place under the guidance of al-Qaida operations chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks who is now in U.S. custody.
The location was an abandoned school in Mir Bach Kot, Afghanistan, north of Kabul, a hotbed of al-Qaida activity before the U.S. and allied forces ousted the Taliban.
Former Green Beret Keith "Jack" Idema discovered the tapes in an abandoned house while serving as an adviser to the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.
He says the video shows bullet-ridden blackboards and cut-out targets in classrooms, apparently representing students and teachers.
"Knowing al-Qaida trained to take out a presidential motorcade or an office building is scary, but nothing is more frightening than their training to take over a school," Idema told the Post. "In a classroom in a camp near Jalalabad, we found little desks with bullet holes in them and the backs of the chairs each had seven or eight bullet holes in them. They were definitely aiming to hit critical mass."
Portions of the tapes viewed by the newspaper showed a hostage-taking exercise and three scenarios where masked men, armed with AK-47s, pistols and hand grenades, storm a school-like brick building. In one assault, two gunmen rappel from the roof onto a ledge and wait for the go-ahead via two-way radio.
The Post recounts the school assault in detail:
"Two of the kidnappers are sitting in the cafeteria," a narrator says in Arabic.
At the command "move!" a janitor sweeping a hallway inside drops his broom and pulls out a gun. Others burst into rooms, fire automatic weapons and bark English commands at a group of children and adults, apparently locals and other camp residents co-opted for the exercise.
"Sit," a hooded terrorist yells to the children, who shriek in horror. "Don't move, don't move," he says. The children are made to kneel and place their hands on the walls while adults stand with hands raised and are frisked.
The armed thugs then herd their captives down the hallways as they shout in English, "Go in here!" and "Don't move!" Some hostages are then ordered to the roof.
"I don't want to go," one sham victim pleads in Arabic.
"Go before I kill you," a rifle-toting thug barks back.
The camera then zooms in on a terrorist, who stomps on a child.
On the rooftop, a lookout announces the arrival of police. A terrorist then drags a "hostage" to the ledge for display.
The Post says other training exercises include an attack at a mock golf outing, as men dressed as caddies drop their bags, pull out guns and open fire.
"This is how we will kill the world leaders," the narrator says in Arabic.
As WorldNetDaily reported in September, an al-Qaida training videotape, captured in Afghanistan, shows Osama bin Laden's terrorists are not only planning attacks with weapons of mass destruction but are preparing to kill Americans with drive-by shootings and home break-ins, through ambushes of law-enforcement officers and targeted assassinations on golf courses.
The training video shows al-Qaida operatives practicing the following kinds of assaults:
using pickup trucks with shooters concealed in the bed of the trucks;
using motorcycles as a shooting platform for drive-bys and assassinations;
execution of prisoners;
ambushes of law-enforcement officers;
residential assassinations;
assassination on a golf course using a rocket-propelled grenade and rifle fire;
drive-up kidnapping of target walking on a street;
use of tunnels, storm drains and sewers for infiltration during urban raids;
rappelling from rooftops of buildings to make entry on upper floors;
use of motorcycles for grenade attacks; and
raids on buildings with large numbers of occupants – perhaps schools or office buildings.
In one scenario on the video, terrorists pretend to be stranded on a six-lane highway, their vehicle disabled. When a police officer stops to assist, the driver blows his horn. Another occupant of the vehicle opens fire on the police officer with a rifle. In other scenarios, shooters were concealed in the trunk of the car. When the terrorists were picked up by accomplices in a getaway car, the original vehicle was blown up, apparently to destroy evidence.
In another scenario, an innocuous-looking terrorist knocks on the door of a residence, standing in view of the resident and answering questions through a closed door. When the resident opens the door, the terrorist immediately draws his weapon and fires, emptying his weapon into the victim.
In the golf course assassination, the target was on the green, near the hole. A rocket-propelled grenade is fired at a vehicle adjacent to the green, perhaps a security detail. Then the target of the assassination is killed with rifle fire.
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