Ridge: "The Terrorists are comming! The Terrorists are coming!" (wag the media)

Sunder sunder at sunder.net
Thu Aug 5 08:35:26 PDT 2004


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/03/us_terror_alert_political_football/print.html

US terror alert becomes political football
By Thomas C Greene (thomas.greene at theregister.co.uk)
Published Tuesday 3rd August 2004 15:15 GMT

Update As we reported recently 
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/02/al_qaeda_cyber_terror_panic), the 
latest ratcheting up of the terror threat level in the United States was 
based on captured documents dating back some time. In that article, we 
observed that it was "not clear whether any of the information recently 
obtained relates to current or future schemes."

<SNIP>

"much of the information that led the authorities to raise the terror 
alert at several large financial institutions in the New York City and 
Washington areas was three or four years old, intelligence and law 
enforcement officials said on Monday. They reported that they had not yet 
found concrete evidence that a terrorist plot or preparatory surveillance 
operations were still under way."

<SNIP>

Why now?

If anyone is wondering why terrorism, and especially attacks at home, 
should have been so fully hyped on such thin evidence, it's useful to 
consider the news cycle.

Last week, John Kerry did a surprisingly good job of introducing himself 
to the nation as a plausible replacement for Bush. 

<SNIP>

Politics

But this rain dance was not undertaken from a security point of view. It 
was concocted with a political motive, and its purpose was to distract the 
public from the additive disasters in Iraq, and the unexpectedly strong 
showing by the Democrats in Boston last week. It was designed to make 
Junior look like the "strong leader" that his cheerleaders insist, against 
all evidence, that he really is. (We note that the true Prince of 
Darkness, Dick Cheney, has been dutifully silent, and conspicuously 
absent, during the recent national security festivities, to vouchsafe the 
limelight to Junior.)

<SNIP>

----------------------Kaos-Keraunos-Kybernetos---------------------------
 + ^ + :"War is Peace                                                /|\
  \|/  : Freedom is Slavery                                         /\|/\
<--*-->: Ignorance is Strength                                      \/|\/
  /|\  : Bush is President" - Bret Feinblatt                         \|/
 + v + :                                                            
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