Right or wrong - this is scary.

Excerpt:

...Al Qaeda can inflict serious damage to the US economy by weakening the dollar, causing flight of investments, and raising unemployment...

Al Qaeda Economic Targets Outlined in Depth
by Laura Mansfield

Late Saturday night, a posting appeared on an Islamic Jihadi forum in
Arabic outlining the economic targets that may be in Al Qaeda's crosshairs.

The posting was titled "Will Al-Qaeda threaten to crash the Boeing
airplanes?!! A futuristic view of the economic war" and appears to outline
one of the paths that might be taken by Al Qaeda in its war with America.
(The Arabic is located here.)

The posting begins by outlining the four axes in the war against the United
States:  Economic, Military, Media, and Political.  It cites the economic
axis as the most important of the four.

It specifies several different sectors of the American economy as most
vulnerable:  airplane manufacturing, automobile manufacturing, and energy.
The posting explicitly states that by focusing on these sectors of the
economy, Al Qaeda can inflict serious damage to the US economy by weakening
the dollar, causing flight of investments, and raising unemployment.

It justifies these sectors as targets because of their support for the
American political system, specifically what they call the "black house".
It also points out that these huge companies are the backbone of the
American economy and that a serious blow to them would take considerable
time and effort to repair.

The posting also points out that should any one of these manufacturing
giants fail that the impact on the stock market would be significant in
terms of undermining investor confidence, increasing unemployment, and
removing tens of thousands of jobs from the US economy.

The author of the posting claims significant victories in the media axis of
the war, specifically referring to the blackouts in the United States, when
Abu Hafs al Masri Brigade claimed responsibility for the electrical
outages.  He cites military victories in the attacks on the British Consul
in Turkey.  And he uses the Madrid bombings and the resultant overthrow of
the government to illustrate a political victory.

He goes on to ask how a victory on the economic axis might be attained in
the coming days.

The scenario he proposes is chilling.  He suggests the following:

1.  Focus on American companies worldwide as targets

2.  Attacks on American oil refineries

3.  Attacks on the American civilian airports, causing a destruction of the
airlines which have already been damaged in the September 11 attacks.

4.  Boycott of American products

5.  Creation of forest fires, in an attempt to deprive the American market
of raw materials for the wood, paper, and byproducts industries

6.  Attacks on the transit systems as happened in Spain

The article goes on to outline a more specific plan of attack against
Boeing.  It explains that the airplane industry is dominated by two
companies, who are in intense competition with each other:  Boeing from the
US and Airbus  from Europe.

According to the author, Boeing has already sustained significant damage as
a result of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, especially
after the decline in travel in tourism that resulted from the attacks.  In
addition, Boeing has lost a Pentagon contract worth billions of US
dollars.  It has laid of hundred of workers in an attempt to stabilize the
company.

The author goes on to state that Boeing is optimistic about the future,
with regard to sales of its new line of jets in the Asian market.

According to the author, Al Qaeda could deliver a crushing blow to Boeing
simply by issuing a decree declaring war upon any company purchasing
airplanes from Boeing.  The author states that Al Qaeda would simply need
to follow up on the threat with the downing of a flight in the Orient or in
the West by means of shoulder guided missiles, and then state the reason
for the attack.

He projects that such an attack would be catastrophic for Boeing, in terms
of contracts and in terms of stock performance.

This is but one of many postings that appear on a regular basis with regard
to the plans for attacks by Al Qaeda.  The scenario proposed by the author
of the post is chilling and is certainly plausible.  The effect of such a
strategy is predictable.