Last Thursday, President Bush revealed a terrorist plot of 2001 to pilot a hijacked plane into the Library Tower in Los Angeles, the tallest building on the West Coast. Before the plan could be implemented, three of the four plotters were arrested in a southeast Asian country in 2002, while Khalid Sheik Mohammed, suspected to be the mind behind the Sept 11. attacks, was captured in 2003.
Sources said Mohammed initially wanted the attack to take place on Sept. 11, but Osama bin Laden reportedly told Mohammed it would be too difficult to find enough personnel to carry out attacks on both the East and West Coasts simultaneously.
Bush first disclosed the non-specifics of the thwarted plot in a speech in October of last year, but revealed more information Thursday to help defend his support of the warrantless surveillance of international telephone calls and e-mails.
According to The Washington Post, however, several U.S. intelligence officials wishing to remain anonymous felt the plot was nothing more than talk, instead of a full-fledged, premeditated plan for attack. In his speech, Bush did not specify the stage of the plot when the plotters were caught.
"It seems kind of outrageous to me," second-year College student Ryan Murphy said. "It didn't seem very credible."
Regardless of his opinion on the plot, Murphy said he believes Bush's warrantless surveillance is well-founded.
"It's never okay to stereotype or use stereotypes to make decisions, but a wide-ranging security program like this shouldn't hurt anyone," Murphy said. "It's not intrusive."
Fourth-year College student Mike Provenza, on the other hand, said he did not like Bush's security plan.
"I'm skeptical of things that encroach upon freedoms," Provenza said.
In light of the recent criticism of Bush's surveillance program, both Provenza and Murphy said they believe Bush's timely disclosure of the more detailed aspects of the plot is more than mere coincidence.
"Politics played a large part," Murphy said. "Bush is trying to build support for the Republican Party."
Provenza said he was sure politics played the largest role in Bush's decision to announce the details.
"Politics plays more of a role than it should," Provenza said.
Even so, Murphy said the capture of the terrorists by using surveillance proves a point.
"It's working somewhere at least," Murphy said. "There are stories about people anticipating 9-11 and not doing anything about it."
Despite the ambiguous stage of the plot, Murphy said people should feel relieved by the capture of the terrorists.
"This builds confidence, even if the scare seemed manufactured in some ways," Murphy said.
Even though Provenza said he was skeptical of Bush's surveillance program, he could not immediately think of an improved replacement.
"I don't know if there's a better way," Provenza said. "I hope so."
Murphy could not think of an alternative either, but he said he was satisfied with the current plan.
"To discover things like that, you really need to resort to espionage," Murphy said. "No one's going to come out and say, 'I'm going to blow this up."
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