1115.org

(1)
Yet another sensational terror plot with dramatic arrests that lends itself to gripping headlines and impressive sound bites.

Here’s how MSNBC gleefully embraced it:

Federal authorities announced Saturday they had broken up a suspected Muslim terrorist cell planning a “chilling” attack to destroy John F. Kennedy International Airport, kill thousands of people and trigger an economic catastrophe by blowing up a jet fuel artery that runs through populous residential neighborhoods.

This is from the updated report they put out at 11:55 Central on Saturday night, well after it started to become clear that the plot was much less than what it had been cracked up to be.

The word chilling came straight from the mouth of Roslynn R. Mauskopf, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Just for the record, she’s held the position since September 3, 2002 (i.e. she’s one of the ones who was not replaced at the end of her four year term). She put it really very well, if the intention was to make a craggy snow-topped mountain out of the relative mole-hill the plot really seems to have been:

“The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable,” U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf said at a news conference, calling it “one of the most chilling plots imaginable.”

MSNBC didn’t just put the word chilling in the first paragraph of their story. They made her sensational quote the third paragraph of their story.

Now just to set the record straight, if the dastardly “Muslim terrorist” plotters had succeeded in carrying out their plot exactly as planned, it would not have destroyed John F. Kennedy International Airport, it would not have killed thousands of people, it would not have triggered an economic catastrophe.

The fact that the jet fuel artery runs through populous residential neighborhoods would not have mattered a damn because the artery would not have exploded all along its length.

The devastation that would have been caused had the plot succeeded is not unthinkable. Far from being one of the most chilling plots imaginable, it was seriously misconceived.

The funny thing is that here’s what MSNBC itself reported in paragraph 13 of its story:

Richard Kuprewicz, a pipeline expert and president of Accufacts Inc., an energy consulting firm that focuses on pipelines and tank farms, said the force of explosion would depend on the amount of fuel under pressure, but it would not travel up and down the line.

And as long as you’re laughing out loud, here’s what first reports said soon after noon on Saturday:

Homeland Security sources say … that the attack as planned was “not technically feasible.”

Hilarious how everyone somehow clean forgot about that pretty much right away. Except for CNN. In the updated report they put out at 4:05 am Eastern on Sunday morning, they carried that short, succinct statement as paragraph two.

Finally, here’s the NYT from Sunday morning:

One law enforcement official played down Mr. Defreitas’s ability to carry out an attack, calling him “a sad sack” and “not a Grade A terrorist.” Comparing the case with the plot in which a group of men were arrested last month on charges of planning to attack soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey, the official said the New Jersey plotters “were a bit further along.”

Now go back and read Mauskopf’s statement again. “One of the most chilling plots imaginable” indeed!

(2)
At this point, many people are going: Are these guys (the government, more than the media) never going to learn?

And that’s certainly understandable, under the circumstances. We may as well rehash some of those quickly.

There was that plot last June to topple the Sears Tower in Chicago. The plot which gave us the phrase “more aspirational than operational”. The one where it turned out that “a pivotal role was played by an unidentified undercover F.B.I. informer who posed as a Qaeda member”. The one where “the reported attack plans apparently never passed the discussion stage.”

And how about the London liquid explosives plot last August? The one where the plotters lacked “serious operational capacity”. The one where, “Despite the charges, officials said they were still unsure of one critical question: whether any of the suspects was technically capable of assembling and detonating liquid explosives while airborne.”

Or maybe your personal favorite is the plot to attack the Liberty Library Tower in Los Angeles? That’s the one the President famously mis-trumpeted in February 2006. The one where the truth didn’t quite match the President’s rhetoric in so far as “the plot never progressed past the planning stages”. The one with “deep disagreement within the intelligence community over the seriousness of the … scheme and whether it was ever much more than talk.”

So yes, it’s forgivable if you go: Are these guys never going to learn? But the fact is that they have indeed learned. Consider:
• Details of the Library Tower plot were first disclosed to the country by the President himself, in a televised speech he made on February 9, 2006.
• The news conference held to provide details about the Sears Tower plot the day after the arrests of the “Miami 7″ was presided over by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, with John S. Pistole, the deputy director of the F.B.I. by his side.
• In the case of the London liquid explosives plot, after the U.S. forced British authorities to prematurely arrest the plotters, the U.S. end of the P.R. offensive (and, yes, I use the word advisedly) was personally handled by the Homeland Security secretary himself, the redoubtable Michael Chertoff.

In the past, they always brought out the heavy hitters in support of these absurdly over-hyped terror plots.

So it’s striking who constituted the cast of characters for Saturday’s news conference to hype the JFK plot. It’s not even clear to me who can be said to have presided over the event. So I give it to you alphabetically, by last name: Michael Balboni (New York’s Deputy Secretary to the Governor for Public Security), New York Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf and Mark J. Mershon (Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York field office).

Not exactly in the same league as the President, the Attorney General and the secretary for Homeland Security.