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| Alerts tied to memo flap |
| 2002-05-22 |
| The Bush administration issued a spate of terror alerts in recent days to mute criticism that its national security team sat on intelligence warnings in the weeks before the September 11 attacks. This is very "duh!" news. I'm surprised that the Washington Times even ran it, much less ran it on page one as today's headline. The warnings, including yesterday's uncorroborated FBI report that terrorists might target the Statue of Liberty, quieted some of the lawmakers who said President Bush failed to act on clues of the September 11 attacks, although Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle yesterday reiterated his demand for an independent investigation. Oh, investigate and be damned. Now we're going to wade through near-daily releases of junk warnings, and when there is a firm indication of trouble to come it'll be lost in the grass. When it happens, somebody with a bit of memory might pee on Daschle's leg, but the people who get hit will still be dead. Pfui. The latest alerts were issued "as a result of all the controversy that took place last week," said Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer, referring to reports that the president received a CIA briefing in August about terror threats, including plans by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network to hijack U.S. commercial airliners. And the Bush administration ought to have more sense than to spew this kind of clutter. I suppose they were driven to it by the minivolcano with Gephardt running around hollering "what-did-he-know-and-when-did-he-know-it" as though it were something original he came up with, but I hope they let it taper off to nothing as soon as they can. They advertise themselves as The Grownups, so they should act like it. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Fred: Fortune's running a story: The FBI's 'Phoenix' Memo Unmasked Wonder who the leaker was? Just freakin lovely. And now they wonder why Chaney isn't thrilled with the idea of an open investigation. F'in idiots. Mary Lu |
| Posted by: Mary Wehmeier 2002-05-22 16:05:41 |