Al Qaeda England-USA match threat

Source: The Citizen

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Thursday.
...
“Police will not tolerate criminal acts that are disguised as service delivery protests or labour-related demands,” he said.
Addressing reporters at a later media briefing, he declined to comment directly on reports that the Al Kaida movement was planning a terror attack targeting the England-United States match on June 12.
“You are not going to get any specifics,” he told a British reporter.
“We have prepared ourselves from the pettiest of criminal acts to the largest of anything, terrorism included.
“Those threats have been made; it’s not the first time they've been made.

Bold is mine.

Confirmation of evidence of (repeated?) specific threats against a specific match.

A curious comment on a similar story in the News24 comments:

Burgiesburnin 4/14/2010 12:43 PM If tickets are available for all games except the final, why were no tickets available for the England USA game and why did FIFA say that this game was sold out?

The match is scheduled for:

June 12: England v USA, Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg

I would not believe a word of it.

[edit on 4/29/2010 by andy1033]

reply to post by andy1033


Whiskey

Tango

Foxtrot

Over?

what possible sport could England and the US be playing against eachother?

reply to post by Ruler Of The Universe


World Cup Football, or Soccer if you prefer.

reply to post by Ruler Of The Universe


The USA has representative teams in Football, Rugby, Cricket and probably numerous other sports.

reply to post by andy1033


What in the name of god are you talking about?

I imagine the World Cup would be a huge terrorist target, but specifically the USA-England match.

Thing is many large events such as this are always targets.

reply to post by andy1033


What the Fu** are you talking about?

reply to post by Kram09


I am explaining to you guys about how the police just make up stuff. If you cannot work this out.....

Originally posted by andy1033
reply to post by Kram09

 

I am explaining to you guys about how the police just make up stuff. If you cannot work this out.....

Nope.

It was a question from a British journalist during an informal press conference. He did not deny, which is the usual response. A slip of the tongue perhaps?

I have no doubt his head is a little fuller than usual.

I know Andy is more than capable of speaking for himself but I think he's trying to point out that it is not unknown for The Police to say or do things to stir up feeling and interest in one area so as to do divert attention from some of their own doings and that they are more than capable of committing nefarious and odious deeds themselves.

Raising attention and concern about possible Al-Qaeda activity diverts attention from other goings on in South Africa.

Originally posted by Freeborn
Raising attention and concern about possible Al-Qaeda activity diverts attention from other goings on in South Africa.

I see that, but this is not a press release. It's not a statement of any sort. The main body of the news item is about the (apparent) illegality of any labour disputes during the SWC.

There were rumours previously about an attack, but this is much more specific than that was. And it's not being propogated by our govt, they have enough troubles of their own right now.

Al Qaeda does not exist (at least as an actual unified group, there are a few isolated extremists), so who really benefits from these supposed 'threats', and if an attack is carried out what could it be used to justify?

If you think about this logically why would the terrorists want to attack a soccer match? (hint: its not because they hate our freedoms)
There is no logic behind attacking us unless they want our governments to turn countries into police states... So is it more likely that governments are giving these supposed threats or "al-qaeda"?

reply to post by time91


Al-Qaeda in itself may or may not exist.

But there are plenty of Muslim extremist organisations who would love to bomb such a high profile match like this to highlight themselves and their alleged cause and to try and bomb us into submission.

reply to post by Freeborn


They do not have the manpower, nor the weapons to 'bomb us into submission'. Whats funny is that they could probably draw more attention to their supposed 'cause' by requesting to go on some news program. Do you think that a news organization would not let them go on? They would probably get higher ratings than normal. Like when Osama was found by ABC news, even though according to official sources in government (the CIA and FBI) we were spending millions searching for him...

Al Qaeda was a construction of he CIA to oppose Russian involvement with the Taliban.

So now either "Al Qaeda" are STILL a CIA asset, or it has grown and become viral, encompassing any and all "terrorists".

Either way, it's a name given to any "bombers" or "terrorist act" threats today.

The threats have been made against a specific place and time. The police are *not* talking about it openly, and there is also a suggestion that FIFA is taking it seriously enough to withhold tickets???

Just to point out, The Royal Bafokeng stadium is in Rustenburg, a large agricultural town about 3 hours from Jo'burg. From central / north Africa, it is one of the 2 most accessable targets in South Africa. ie if i were a terrorist, that's exactly where i'd be aiming for.

I;ve got a bad feeling about this World Cup in South Africa. Here's 2 reasons why -

An expert has predicted that South Africa is almost certain to be hit by a major natural disaster, and, it could strike during this summer's World Cup football tournament

news.oneindia.in...

and

Nelson Mandela, possibly South Africa’s most famous citizen and the country’s unofficial brand ambassador to the world, may not attend the World Cup opening ceremony on account of his old age

www.dnaindia.com...

Maybe it's nothing, but with the Terrorist threat as well, one can't help but think something bad is going to go down here.

Nothing better freckin happen! I haven't been waiting 4 freckin years for TPTB to ruin it. I will get my footy fix!