[Ekzamenov]

ABC News: Details Emerge About Possible Terror Threat

This is such BS !!!! - for some reason, the timing of all these things happen right before anything major is supposed to happen, like elections, his state of the union speeches.. etc etc..

I hope this is not the case.. but the govt. cried wolf so many times, its hard to believe them anymore.

[JTS_tv]

No, the government would NEVER manipulate terror alerts for political reasons. They only have our best interests in mind. They only change the terror alerts because we're in grave danger. Just remain afraid and you'll be fine.

[Ekzamenov]

haha pramjockey.. thats hilarious.. but the sad part is.. unfortunately a shitload of people actually really truly believe that..

[Sdinozes]

Actually, I remember terror alerts being issued many times when nothing major was happening (state of the union address, elections, etc.). While this isn't proof that the government isn't messing around with us, it certainly questions the integrity of your theory.

It's another one of those 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' things. If they don't alert people and there's a terrorist attack, they're a bad government. If they do issue a terror attack alert and there isn't one, they're 'messing with us and keeping us afraid'.

[Seiblybiozy]

Yea, we LOVE to announce terror alerts....Hell Britain, France, Austria and even Russia is getting on board with it......

Many world leaders are jerking themselves off while partying it up over these alerts.

[Ekzamenov]

can you name some times when they did issue a alert, and nothing else was happening simultaneously? no elections ? speeches? conventions? trials (abramoff or any other ones)

[Seiblybiozy]

Actually, I remember terror alerts being issued many times when nothing major was happening (state of the union address, elections, etc.). While this isn't proof that the government isn't messing around with us, it certainly questions the integrity of your theory.

It's another one of those 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' things. If they don't alert people and there's a terrorist attack, they're a bad government. If they do issue a terror attack alert and there isn't one, they're 'messing with us and keeping us afraid'.

Speakeasy, glad to see you back....

[JTS_tv]

can you name some times when they did issue a alert, and nothing else was happening simultaneously? no elections ? speeches? conventions? trials (abramoff or any other ones)

There were a few occasions, but the timeline (can't remember where I saw a visual one) is very interesting. There's a remarkable amount of coincidence.

[Sdinozes]

can you name some times when they did issue a alert, and nothing else was happening simultaneously? no elections ? speeches? conventions? trials (abramoff or any other ones)

Yea, I'll see what I can find for you.

Speakeasy, glad to see you back....

Glad to be back.

[Seiblybiozy]

can you name some times when they did issue a alert, and nothing else was happening simultaneously? no elections ? speeches? conventions? trials (abramoff or any other ones)

Google works.... You made the assumption that alerts only happen during "special" times, so you should research it.

[Sdinozes]

Two events that come to mind from last August were the foiled terror attacks in the UK and those mysterious missing Egyptian students in the US. Sure, it was an election year, but that's about as far as you can stretch them being put into the public arena for political purposes.

[panholio]

No it's not like the terrorists would do anything to harm an administration that's been vigilant about defeating them is it?

Varus

[Eromereorybig]

Speakeasy welcome back! You've been greatly missed!

Keith Olbermann pointed out the coincidences on his show and here they are from his website transcript. Whenever there are too many negative headlines about the President, the terror alert has been raised.

Now, who can believe them? On May 10th of this year, after his resignation, former Secretary of Homeland Security Ridge looked back on the terror alert level changes, issued on his watch.

Mr. Ridge said: “More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it. Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don’t necessarily put the country on (alert)… there were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said ‘for that?’”

Please, judge for yourself.

Number One:

May 18th, 2002. The first details of the President’s Daily Briefing of August 6th, 2001, are FREE VIDEO


• Nexus of politics and terror
Oct. 12: Keith Olbermann focuses on terror alerts over the past several years. Keith pulls together the political climate at the time of the alerts and allows viewers to determine for themselves if there is a political connection.
MSNBC


revealed, including its title - “Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S.” The same day another memo is discovered - revealing the FBI knew of men with links to Al Qaeda training at an Arizona flight school. The memo was never acted upon. Questions about 9/11 Intelligence failures are swirling.

May 20th, 2002. Two days later, FBI Director Mueller declares another terrorist attack “inevitable.” The next day, the Department of Homeland Security issues warnings of attacks against railroads nationwide, and against New York City landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.

Number Two:

June 6th, 2002. Colleen Rowley, the FBI agent who tried to alert her superiors to the specialized flight training taken by Zacarias Moussaoui, whose information suggests the government missed a chance to break up the 9/11 plot, testifies before Congress. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Graham says Rowley’s testimony has inspired similar pre-9/11 whistle-blowers.

June 10th, 2002. Four days later, speaking from Russia, Attorney General John Ashcroft reveals that an American named Jose Padilla is under arrest, accused of plotting a radiation bomb attack in this country. Padilla had, by this time, already been detained for more than a month.

Number Three:

February 5th, 2003. Secretary of State Powell tells the United Nations Security Council of Iraq’s concealment of weapons, including 18 mobile biological weapons laboratories, justifying a U.N. or U.S. first strike. Many in the UN are doubtful. Months later, much of the information proves untrue.

February 7th, 2003. Two days later, as anti-war demonstrations continue to take place around the globe, Homeland Security Secretary Ridge cites “credible threats” by Al Qaeda, and raises the terror alert level to orange. Three days after that, Fire Administrator David Paulison - who would become the acting head of FEMA after the Hurricane Katrina disaster - advises Americans to stock up on plastic sheeting and duct tape to protect themselves against radiological or biological attack.

Number Four:

July 23rd, 2003: The White House admits the CIA -- months before the President's State of the Union Address -- expressed "strong doubts" about the claim that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium from Niger. On the 24th, the Congressional report on the 9/11 attacks is issued; it criticizes government at all levels; it reveals an FBI informant had been living with two of the future hijackers; and it concludes that Iraq had no link to Al-Qaeda. 28 pages of the report are redacted. On the 26th, American troops are accused of beating Iraqi prisoners.

July 29th, 2003. Three days later, amid all of those negative headlines, Homeland Security issues warnings of further terrorist attempts to use airplanes for suicide attacks.

Number Five:

December 17th, 2003. 9/11 Commission Co-Chair Thomas Kean says the attacks were preventable. The next day, a Federal Appeals Court says the government cannot detain suspected radiation-bomber Jose Padilla indefinitely without charges, and the chief U.S. Weapons inspector in Iraq, Dr. David Kay, who has previously announced he has found no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, announces he will resign his post.

December 21st, 2003. Three days later, just before Christmas, Homeland Security again raises the threat level to Orange, claiming “credible intelligence” of further plots to crash airliners into U.S. cities. Subsequently, six international flights into this country are cancelled after some passenger names purportedly produce matches on government no-fly lists. The French later identify those matched names: one belongs to an insurance salesman from Wales, another to an elderly Chinese woman, a third to a five-year old boy.

Number Six:

March 30th, 2004. The new chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Charles Duelfer tells Congress we have still not found any WMD there. And, after weeks of refusing to appear before the 9/11 Commission, Condoleezza Rice finally relents and agrees to testify. On the 31st: Four Blackwater-USA contractors working in Iraq are murdered, their mutilated bodies dragged through the streets and left on public display in Fallujah. The role of civilian contractors in Iraq is widely questioned.

April 2nd, 2004. Homeland Security issues a bulletin warning that terrorists may try to blow up buses and trains, using fertilizer and fuel bombs - like the one detonated in Oklahoma City - stuffed into satchels or duffel bags.

Number Seven:

May 16th, 2004. Secretary of State Powell appears on “Meet The Press.” Moderator Tim Russert closes by asking him about the “enormous personal credibility” Powell had placed before the U.N. in laying out a case against Saddam Hussein. An aide to Powell interrupts the question, saying the interview is over. Powell finishes his answer, admitting that much of the information he had been given about Weapons of Mass Destruction was “inaccurate and wrong, and, in some cases, deliberately misleading.”

May 21st, 2004, new photos showing mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison are released. On the 24th - Associated Press video from Iraq confirms U.S. forces mistakenly bombed a wedding party - killing more than 40.

FREE VIDEO


• Coincidence?
Oct. 12: Keith Olbermann talks with the former Under-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Asa Hutchison about the connection between politics and the terror alerts over the past several years.
MSNBC


Wednesday the 26th. Two days later, Attorney General Ashcroft and FBI Director Mueller warn that intelligence from multiple sources, in Ashcroft’s words, “indicates Al-Qaeda’s specific intention to hit the United States hard,” and that “90 percent of the arrangements for an attack on the United States were complete.” The color-coded warning system is not raised, and Homeland Security Secretary Ridge does not attend the announcement.

Number Eight:

July 6th, 2004. Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry selects Senator John Edwards as his vice presidential running mate, producing a small bump in the election opinion polls, and a huge swing in media attention towards the Democratic campaign.

July 8th, 2004. Two days later, Homeland Secretary Ridge warns of information about Al-Qaeda attacks during the summer or autumn. Four days after that, the head of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, DeForest B. Soaries, Junior, confirms he has written to Ridge about the prospect of postponing the upcoming Presidential election in the event it is interrupted by terrorist acts.

Number Nine:

July 29th, 2004. At their party convention in Boston, the Democrats formally nominate John Kerry as their candidate for President. As in the wake of any convention, the Democrats dominate the media attention over the ensuing weekend.

Monday, August 1st, 2004. The Department of Homeland Security raises the alert status for financial centers in New York, New Jersey, and Washington to orange. The evidence supporting the warning - reconnaissance data, left in a home in Iraq - later proves to be roughly four years old and largely out-of-date.

Number Ten:

Last Thursday. At 10 AM Eastern Time, the President addresses the National Endowment for Democracy, once again emphasizing the importance of the war on terror and insisting his government has broken up at least 10 terrorist plots since 9/11.

At 3 PM Eastern Time, five hours after the President’s speech has begun, the Associated Press reports that Karl Rove will testify again to the CIA Leak Grand Jury, and that Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald has told Rove he cannot guarantee that he will not be indicted.

At 5:17 PM Eastern Time, seven hours after the President’s speech has begun, New York officials disclose a bomb threat to the city’s subway system - based on information supplied by the Federal Government. A Homeland Security spokesman says the intelligence upon which the disclosure is based is “of doubtful credibility.” And it later proves that New York City had known of the threat for at least three days, and had increased police presence in the subways long before making the announcement at that particular time. Local New York television station, WNBC, reports it had the story of the threat days in advance, but was asked by "high ranking federal officials" in New York and Washington to hold off its story.

Less than four days after revealing the threat, Mayor Michael Bloomberg says "Since the period of the threat now seems to be passing, I think over the immediate future, we'll slowly be winding down the enhanced security."

While news organizations ranging from the New York Post to NBC News quote sources who say there was reason to believe that informant who triggered the warning simply ‘made it up’, a Senior U.S. Counter-terrorism official tells the New York Times: "There was no there, there."

The list of three additional examples follows.

Number Eleven:

October 22nd, 2004. After weeks of Administration insistence that there are terrorist plans to disrupt the elections, FBI, Law Enforcement, and other U.S. Intelligence agencies report they have found no direct evidence of any plot. More over, they say, a key CIA source who had claimed knowledge of the plot, has been discredited.

October 29, 2004. Seven days later - four days before the Presidential election - the first supposedly new, datable tape of Osama Bin Laden since December 2001 is aired on the Al-Jazeera Network. A Bush-Cheney campaign official anonymously tells the New York Daily News that from his campaign’s point of view, the tape is quote “a little gift.”

Number Twelve:

May 5th, 2005. 88 members of the United States House of Representatives send a letter to President Bush demanding an investigation of the so-called “Downing Street Memo” - a British document which describes purported American desire dating to 2002 to "fix" the evidence to fit the charges against Iraq. In Iraq over the following weekend, car bombings escalate. On the 11th, more than 75 Iraqis are killed in one.

May 11th, 2005. Later that day, an instructor and student pilot violate restricted airspace in Washington D.C. It is an event that happens hundreds of times a year, but this time the plane gets to within three miles of the White House. The Capitol is evacuated; Vice President Cheney, the First Lady, and Nancy Reagan are all rushed to secure locations. The President, biking through woods, is not immediately notified.

Number Thirteen:

June 26th, 2005. A Gallup poll suggests that 61 percent of the American public believes the President does not have a plan in Iraq. On the 28th, Mr. Bush speaks to the nation from Fort Bragg: "We fight today because terrorists want to attack our country and kill our citizens, and Iraq is where they are making their stand. So we'll fight them there, we'll fight them across the world, and we will stay in the fight until the fight is won."

June 29th 2005. The next day, another private pilot veers into restricted airspace, the Capitol is again evacuated, and this time, so is the President.

--

To summarize, coincidences are coincidences.

We could probably construct a similar time line of terror events and warnings, and their relationship to - the opening of new Walmarts around the country.

Are these coincidences signs that the government’s approach has worked because none of the announced threats ever materialized? Are they signs that the government has not yet mastered how and when to inform the public?

Is there, in addition to the "fog of war" a simple, benign, "fog of intelligence”?

But, if merely a reasonable case can be made that any of these juxtapositions of events are more than just coincidences, it underscores the need for questions to be asked in this country - questions about what is prudence, and what is fear-mongering; questions about which is the threat of death by terror, and which is the terror of threat. Bloggermann: Wacky video Wednesday - Bloggermann - MSNBC.com

[JTS_tv]

That's it. It was an Olbermann presentation.

Now, if anyone has facts that contradict what Olbermann wrote, I'd love to see them.

[Sdinozes]

Anyone know of a website that may list all terror alerts issued last year or the year before? That would be the only way we would really know.

I have a feeling that a lot more alerts are issued than we care to remember. The only ones that stick out are the ones that we think may have a political agenda.

Of course, they may have a political agenda, but I don't see enough concrete evidence to say that as a fact.

[tickerinet]

can you name some times when they did issue a alert, and nothing else was happening simultaneously? no elections ? speeches? conventions? trials (abramoff or any other ones)

I think, with all the issues that this administration has, that there really isn't a time when something isn't going on.

So be default, every security alert comes at a time when something is going on.

Matt

[JTS_tv]

That could be a fair point, Matt. Hadn't thought about it that way.

[Eromereorybig]

Anyone know of a website that may list all terror alerts issued last year or the year before? That would be the only way we would really know.

I have a feeling that a lot more alerts are issued than we care to remember. The only ones that stick out are the ones that we think may have a political agenda.

Of course, they may have a political agenda, but I don't see enough concrete evidence to say that as a fact.

The one I quoted lists them all until June 2005....not good enough?

[annouhMus]

The boy who cried wolf.????? where are the details? I rememebr a childhood story called "Chicken little" you know, "the sky is falling, the Sky is falling." Without at least rudimantary details, it appears to be simple fearmongering.

[blackjackblax]

I really want to roll my eyes at this. I don't because I was part of the crowd that critisized the government for not doing anything pre 9/11 when they had info about plane hijackers. I think we need to take all threats seriously even if some are false alarms.