Al Qaeda Attacks on Wall Street

[MerryPrankster]

What if at some point during/after the financial crisis, al-Qaeda had attempted or succeeded at some kind of terrorist attack on Wall Street?

Not only would this generate the kind of attention and body-count that AQ likes, but they could claim they were punishing the financial sector for its misdeeds. OBL's letter condemns the US for "trading at interest" (2A) and its not like AQ isn't above hitching its wagons to other political causes--see the references to the US inventing AIDS and refusing to sign the Kyoto Treaty.

And then there's the possibility the US might initially think the Occupy Wall Street or Tea Party were involved, which could lead to some wrongful police actions and even more political trouble.

 

[theReturner]

It seems pretty unlikely that Al Qaeda would be able to pull off such a feet. I'm not say it's impossible, but it seems more likely that it would be the work of a "lone dog", as was the case with the Boston Marathon Bombing.

 

[Anaxagoras]

OBL's letter condemns the US for "trading at interest" (2A)

Which may be ironic, since (IIRC) there was some evidence that people connected to Al Qaeda were short-selling airline stock right before 9/11 happened.

 

[Orville_third]

They did a lot of damage to Wall Street OTL.

 

[saturnV]

I'm not sure how tight security is at the market . but simo relases of anthrax at many markets would really hit the world hard . hopefully it never happens

 

[mattep74]

What if at some point during/after the financial crisis, al-Qaeda had attempted or succeeded at some kind of terrorist attack on Wall Street?

Not only would this generate the kind of attention and body-count that AQ likes, but they could claim they were punishing the financial sector for its misdeeds. OBL's letter condemns the US for "trading at interest" (2A) and its not like AQ isn't above hitching its wagons to other political causes--see the references to the US inventing AIDS and refusing to sign the Kyoto Treaty.

And then there's the possibility the US might initially think the Occupy Wall Street or Tea Party were involved, which could lead to some wrongful police actions and even more political trouble.

Just because WTC wasnt located on Wall Street it did house companies that used Wall Street. The stock market in New York was closed for a week after 11/9

 

[Rstone4]

What kind of attack? Are you talking about Kaboom with chemical explosives? Or Kaboom with computer viruses that alter financial data to cause panic?

 

[Laqueesha]

Phew, I thought I was in the chat section for a minute.

What kind of attack? Are you talking about Kaboom with chemical explosives? Or Kaboom with computer viruses that alter financial data to cause panic?

Maybe a lorry laden with explosives crashes into the NYSE and detonates? That seems the most likely scenario.

 

[Rich Mullins]

An interesting related fact: some suspect financial terrorism had a part in the 2008 meltdown. There was a Pentagon contractor report that suggested this. Whether financial terrorism in truth had much, if anything, to do with the meltdown, I honestly don't know. There was more than enough shenanigans going on without terrorism to bring on the collapse. I just thought this fact could give someone an idea for a POD.

 

[MerryPrankster]

They did a lot of damage to Wall Street OTL.

Just because WTC wasnt located on Wall Street it did house companies that used Wall Street. The stock market in New York was closed for a week after 11/9

I'm thinking something in 2008-10, since AQ is deliberately tying in their attack to the financial crisis. Given the content of their letter, even though things like Iraq are a priority, they also condemn the US for a whole bunch of political, social, and economic things and a high-casualty attack on a banking/financial target would "tick off" many of their boxes--it involves the US harming others (a US economic problem affects the whole world), it involves trading at interest, and it involves punishing Americans for the actions of their government (in this case, lack of regulations on some weird financial practices).

 

[MerryPrankster]

Maybe a lorry laden with explosives crashes into the NYSE and detonates? That seems the most likely scenario.

Or some Mumbai-type commando squad. Buying up lots of fertilizers and explosives attracts attention, but hitting up a bunch of dubious pawn shops with fake IDs to get guns is easier. And if one can connect with existing gunrunners and the like, even less of a paper trail.

(On the other hand, if you bought one gallon of gas with cash at dozens of gas stations you could create a fairly nasty incendiary bomb and that's even less likely to attract attention.)

The NYSE might have a lot of security, but if AQ (or wannabes) are explicitly trying to it into the financial crisis to get attention or score political points, there's always (probable) less defended targets like the offices of big banks and the like.

On the other hand, so much is done in the "cloud" these days that they could cause more trouble setting a data center in the middle of nowhere on fire than by going after a bank headquarters.

 

[democracy101]

I can't find the source, but when the individuals in charge of PRISM were under investigation, they claimed that they had managed to prevent a terrorist attack on Wall Street by tapping phone communications. Given that the program in question began in 2007, the plotters in question would need to plot far ahead in order to prevent being caught.