(1) The Whole Truth?
A.P.:
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the terrorists planned to use liquid explosives disguised as beverages and other common products and detonators disguised as electronic devices.
As MSNBC’s Countdown With Keith Olbermann pointed out last night, with the information currently available there is no way to be sure if that is the truth and nothing but. But I am here to tell you that it is definitely not the whole truth.
Assuming the statement above is the truth and nothing but, the whole truth would be that terrorists disguised as English-speaking men planned to use liquid explosives disguised as beverages and other common products and detonators disguised as electronic devices.
So if we are now banning any and all beverages and liquids and hair gel from aircraft cabins, and if the British security establishment is banning electronic devices, how come nobody is banning English-speaking men?
(2) Sometimes Too Much, Always Too Late?
Washington raised its threat alert to its highest level for commercial flights from Britain to the United States amid fears the plot had not been completely crushed. The alert for all flights coming or going from the United States was also raised slightly.
Why does this administration — from President We-won’t-have-to-fight-them-here Bush to the Homeland Security department — have their heads so firmly lodged in a wholly unnatural body crevice (unnatural for the lodging of heads, that is to say)? Why do they insist on focusing entirely on aviation-related terrorist threats? What will it take for this government to realize that a significant amount of attention must also be paid to other forms and other types of threats? Are we capable only of reacting after we get slapped in the face and punched in the gut? (Or should that be over-reacting?) What’s the unofficial motto of the Homeland Security department anyway? “After the Horse Has Bolted (since 2001)”?
(3) The Whole Truth?, Pt. 2
Prime Minister Tony Blair, vacationing in the Caribbean, briefed President Bush on the situation overnight.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush also had been briefed by his aides while at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he has been on vacation.
Both on vacation at the same time, huh? Blair allegedly in the Caribbean and Bush allegedly in Crawford? Who do they think they are kidding? Why is Blair giving private briefings to Bush? How come Blair’s aides are giving private briefings to Bush? (Irrelevant aside: was Lewinsky giving a private briefing or receiving one?)
(4) Be A Good Pavlovian Doggie Now, America
It is the first time the red alert level in the Homeland Security warning system has been invoked, although there have been brief periods in the past when the orange level was applied. Homeland Security defines the red alert as designating a “severe risk of terrorist attacks.”
“We believe that these arrests (in London) have significantly disrupted the threat, but we cannot be sure that the threat has been entirely eliminated or the plot completely thwarted,” Chertoff said.
He added, however, there was no indication of current plots within the United States.
Surely they’re going to have to revamp the color-coded push-their-buttons system? If we use red for scenarios where there’s no indication of a current plot in the U.S. and where the plot overseas has been significantly disrupted, how many more colors do we need above red to deal with threats more real than bargain-basement poll numbers before a rapidly approaching election?
(5) Unmasking al-Qaeda Secrets
CNN:
British and Pakistani authorities teamed up to thwart the attacks, and 24 men were arrested in overnight raids in Britain, authorities said.
What is noticeably absent there, of course, is any mention of the grand poobah of The War Against Terror (TWAT, for those so inclined), good old us. So on what basis does the Bush administration see this as a heaven-sent opportunity for milking political capital? Mixing metaphors slightly, is there such a thing as Fool’s Political Gold? How come all the “information” is being released by “U.S. counterterrorism officials” and “U.S. intelligence official(s)”, although all the work was done by British and Pakistani authorities? Where does Chertoff get off trying to gratuitously push the al-Qaeda button on the thinnest, most tenuous basis possible:
“It was sophisticated, it had a lot of members and it was international in scope. It was in some respects suggestive of an al-Qaida plot,” Chertoff said, but he cautioned it was too early in the investigation to reach any conclusions.
By that standard, the Coalition Authority’s Iraq offensive is suggestive of an al-Qaeda plot. Of course, it’s too early in the epiphany process to be reaching any conclusions, but isn’t that probably why we’ll never catch Osama bin Laden? Because the biggest al-Qaeda cell in the Western hemisphere is the Bush administration? After all, who was the biggest political beneficiary in the world of the 9/11 attacks if not President George Bush? On whose behalf did Osama bin Laden personally intervene in the 2004 presidential election? Compared to Chertoff’s weak and watery (and thoroughly tasteless) insinuation, this is practically iron-clad proof.
(6) Responsible Journalism
Reuters, via WaPo:
Unconfirmed media reports said anywhere from six to 10 airliners had been targeted in a conspiracy which British police said was meant to cause “mass murder on an unimaginable scale.”
Reporting unconfirmed media reports as news is a welcome step, long overdue in my opinion. Or let me qualify that: it’s welcome, if you accept blogs as falling within the definition of media. So now all we need is a few blogs to repeat the unconfirmed report that George Bush is the leader of an undercover al-Qaeda cell. And no doubt, in short order, we will have the likes of Reuters and WaPo prominently reporting this news, and giving me my 15 minutes of fame and glory.
*** Update at 9 am ***
AMERICAblog has a hard-hitting post about how the Bush administration is milking this terror threat for all the political capital they can. The headline reads
White House official gleeful that terrorists wanted to kill thousands of Americans on ten US airlines over the Atlantic
They provide some scathing quotes from a piece
in Agence France-Presse:
US President George W. Bush seized on a foiled London airline bomb plot to hammer unnamed critics he accused of having all but forgotten the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
[...]
His remarks came a day after the White House orchestrated an exceptionally aggressive campaign to tar opposition Democrats as weak on terrorism, knowing what Democrats didn’t: News of the plot could soon break….
[...]
“Weeks before September 11th, this is going to play big,” said another White House official, who also spoke on condition of not being named, adding that some Democratic candidates won’t “look as appealing” under the circumstances.