Jacksonville, FL, United States (AHN) - The FBI has "high confidence" that a Florida church's plan to burn a Koran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks would impel extremists to attempt to harm organizers and participants of the event as well as U.S. forces overseas .
That assertion is made in an FBI memo dated Aug. 19 published Monday on the blog site www.infowars.com.
By "high confidence" the memo said it meant a judgment that is based on "high quality information from multiple sources or from a single highly reliable source, and/or that the nature of the issue makes it possible to render a solid judgment."
The memo pointed to current indications of threats such as the reactions contained in the extremist website al Fajola.com where a member pledged to detonate himself in the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville where the burning is planned. Another member posted that "you will see unsheathed swords from us, which will inflict death upon you, by land, sea, and air…And we will not rest until we kill tens of you in place of every letter in the book of Allah, if you dare touching it.”
It also cited other less recent events that resulted in similar, violent reactions that ultimately called for war and should not be taken lightly as being possibly implemented against the Dove World Outreach Center.
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan, has warned that the Koran-burning event could imperil Western forces battling the Taliban and could be used as a recruiting tool by the organization.
On Monday, hundreds of Afghans gathered at Kabul to protest the scheduled book burning with placards reading: "Only Coward Burn Qur'an" and "You Burn Qur'an You Burned in Hell." In Indonesia Sunday, thousands gathered to protest the book burning.
