File photo of smoke rising from the Tripoli airport. -Washington Free Beacon/AP
Reports out of Libya claim that Al-Qaeda linked militants have taken control of almost a dozen commercial airliners raising fears of a 9/11 style suicide attack. -Washington Free Beacon. The reports come after militants took over the Tripoli airport. The militants, called the Masked Men Brigade, is an Al-Qaeda affiliate. Analysts say that the planes could not only be used in a 9/11 style suicide attack but as a way to transport armed men to places they wouldn't normally have access to through deception. U.S. officials were unable or unwilling to confirm these reports.
My Comment:
I'm fairly skeptical of this report. The story originally came from Al Jazeera TV, which does not count as a credible source for me. At all. Most of the media that picked up this story have a decidedly conservative bent like the Washington Free Beacon, The Blaze and Fox News. That doesn't mean it is not true, and I'll admit to a conservative bias myself, but it does raise questions. My personal standard for judging whether a story is accurate or not is whether or not the wire services like AP, Reuters and AFP are reporting the story, and as of right now they aren't.
Is it possible though? Here is what I know for sure based on other reports I have read and posts I have made on the situation in Libya. Tripoli's airport fell into the hands of Al-Qaeda linked militants. Many of the planes were destroyed or damaged in the fighting, which was extremely severe. The airport itself is probably damaged. While it is very possible that the militants do indeed have control of these airplanes I have some questions. Can they fly them? Do they have fuel? Are the planes even intact? Does this particular group of militants have any larger goals or reasons to commit wide scale terror attacks? Until these questions are all answered with a yes I am not going to worry to much about this report.
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