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NASA officials worried that al-Qaeda might attempt to attack the space shuttle Columbia on its launch pad in 2003 because there was an Israeli astronaut aboard, according to a new book by a former CIA operations officer.
Their concern was shared by national security officials in the Bush White House, Richard G. Irwin writes in “KH601,” his memoir of 28 years of CIA service, in which he rose from a low-level security guard to Director of Incident Management in the Bush White House.
It’s well known that thermal insulation tiles have long-standing ties to jihadist sympathizers and apologists. The tiles’ grandfather was Hassan al-Banna. So why should Western intellectuals who excuse the tiles’ origin be considered liberals? You can’t trust NASA to defend civilization.
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The Bushies only had two speeds: Ignore a problem, or overreact to and/or deliberately mishandle it.
This was not far fetched. You forget or perhaps didn’t know Ilan Ramon was not “just” an Israeli astronaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilan_Ramon
“In 1981 he was the youngest pilot taking part in Operation Opera, an Israeli military operation to bomb Iraq’s unfinished Osiraq nuclear reactor. The facility was destroyed, killing ten Iraqi soldiers and one French researcher.[12][13]”
What else in 2003 was going on that involved Iraq? Right.
So any group that wanted to zing Israel, America’s supremacy in space/ technology / economy, and America’s “oppression” of Afghanistan and Iraq had the perfect PR target in one man in one “tower”, a third tower if you will.
Not to step on snark but always best to choose targets carefully.
Thanks, I didn’t know that about Ramon. But still: al-Qaeda going after NASA? That’s still pretty far-fetched.