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July 27, 2005

FEAR! TERRA! E-VIL! BE AFRAID!

This must be a Movie of the Week, one of those melodramatic "news report"-like thrillers --

Report: Bin Laden Cocaine Plot Fell Through

Usama bin Laden tried to buy a massive amount of cocaine, spike it with poison and sell it in the United States, hoping to kill thousands of Americans one year after the Sept. 11 attacks, The Post has learned.

The evil plot failed when the Colombian drug lords bin Laden approached decided it would be bad for their business — and, possibly, for their own health, according to law-enforcement sources familiar with the Drug Enforcement Administration's (search) probe of the aborted transaction.

The feds were told of the scheme earlier this year, but its existence had never been made public. The Post has reviewed a document detailing the DEA's findings in the matter, in addition to interviewing sources familiar with the case.

Sources said the feds were told that bin Laden personally met with leaders of a Colombian drug cartel to in 2002 to negotiate the purchase of tons of cocaine, saying that he was willing to spend tens of millions of dollars to finance the deal.

It was not clear where the meeting took place.

Bin Laden hoped that large numbers of Americans dying from poisoned coke would lead to widespread terror.

"They wanted to kill thousands of people — more than the World Trade Center," said a source.

Although the drug lords would have reaped millions of dollars in profits by selling the cocaine to bin Laden, they knew that if his plan succeeded it might effectively destroy the market for their coke in America for years, sources said.

But that was only one reason they declined bin Laden's offer.

The other was their fear of retaliation from the U.S. government once its citizens started to die from the drugs, according to sources.

Whoops, tricked again -- dateline Tuesday, July 26, 2005. Just another day in the undead-life of Fox News.

Posted by Jeff at July 27, 2005 12:06 PM