Quote:
Originally Posted by ratbastid
......The fact is: on an individual level, we're pretty fucking safe from terrorism doing exactly the same stuff we were on September 10th. Right after 9/11 we were told to keep living our lives--which we absolutely WOULD if these people would quit trying to terrify us.
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They will stop......as long as they are not experiencing poor polling results, during a campaign season that will culminate in an election that will determine whether they retain the advantage that comes from holding "one party rule", in the era of a long, long, war, against enemies who are identified, labeled, "rendered", interrogated, disappeared, pursued/not pursued <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=whitehouse.gov+spend+much+time+thinking+about+bin+Laden&btnG=Search">(bin Laden)</a>, or allowed to escape, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=omar+al-faruq&btnG=Google+Search">(Omar Al-Faruq)</a> exclusively according to the political agenda of the leadership of the ruling party. Here is the definition:
Quote:
http://campaigns.wikia.com/wiki/Terrorism
What is a terrorist?
A terrorist is one who meets five criteria:
1. Is a member of an association or individual not under the command of a recognized military force or nation/state
2. deliberately targets
3. a civilian population
4. through physical violence and/or the psychological impact of violence
5. so as to obtain by coercion what he/she could not obtain by persuasion.
All five elements must exist for an act to be defined as terrorism. <b>Note that the civilian population need not be the target of the violence, but can instead be the targetted audience of violence.</b>.......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change.[1][2] Terrorist attacks are designed to influence the broader society to which those killed, injured, or taken hostage belong......
[1]# ^ a b Terrorism. Encyclopędia Britannica. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.
[2]# ^ Terrorism. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Elphaba
.......Host, would it be too off topic to remind folks of Bush revealing the capture of a high level A'Q member in 2004? The consequences of that idiocy for political gain really can't be measured.
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If you perceived the intent to be an official effort to communicate an exaggerated threat and then touting/taking credit for.....making "progress" in "combating" it, while in actuality, the threat was much less signifigant, and the "progress" was minor or irrelevant, or determination was clouded because the "progress" (capture) was revealed prematurely for political gain, I think that it is appropriate to examine the incident here......
<b>This is as much about an examination of the contradictions in what the Bush administration and congressional leaders say, compared to what it is, that they do....as it is a discussion of whether what they do is a campaign of "terror". If we as a nation are "supposed to be" responding to the "Pearl Harbor attack" of "our time", and engaged in a "war on terror", as "they" remind us, over and over....what is "with" all their fucking vacations?</b>
All recent protests aside, to the following premise; it is incomprehensible to me, and I'm sure....to many others, that president Bush, after experiencing the criticism that was meted out in the wake of the 9/11 attacks....criticism that he took a month off and went to his ranch, after just 6-1/2 months on the job, in 2001.....that he received and then later tried to block disclosure of the non-classified portions of the contents of that Aug. 6, 2001 terror attack intelligence PDB, while he was on that vacation, and then did nothing in response to that PDB, including not interrupting that vacation.
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A2676-2004Apr10¬Found=true">(Bush Gave No Sign of Worry In August 2001 By Dana Milbank and Mike Allen Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, April 11, 2004)</a>
Quote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...080201703.html
Vacationing Bush Poised to Set a Record
With Long Sojourn at Ranch, President on His Way to Surpassing Reagan's Total
By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 3, 2005; Page A04
WACO, Tex., Aug. 2 -- President Bush is getting the kind of break most Americans can only dream of -- nearly five weeks away from the office, loaded with vacation time.
The president departed Tuesday for his longest stretch yet away from the White House, arriving at his Crawford ranch in the evening to clear brush, visit with family and friends, and tend to some outside-the-Beltway politics. By historical standards, it is the longest presidential retreat in at least 36 years.
The August getaway is Bush's 49th trip to his cherished ranch since taking office and Tuesday was the 319th day that Bush has spent, entirely or partially, in Crawford -- roughly 20 percent of his presidency to date, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS Radio reporter known for keeping better records of the president's travel than the White House itself. Weekends and holidays at Camp David or at his parents' compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, bump up the proportion of Bush's time away from Washington even further....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...123001326.html
Bush Conscripts Aides in Tireless Pursuit of Clearing Ground
By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 31, 2005; Page A03
CRAWFORD, Tex., Dec. 30 -- <b>On most of the 365 days he has enjoyed at his secluded ranch here,</b> President Bush's idea of paradise is to hop in his white Ford pickup truck in jeans and work boots, drive to a stand of cedars, and whack the trees to the ground
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/30/AR2006073000553.html">The president rarely travels domestically on the weekend and almost never spends the night in a city within easy flying time of Washington.</a>
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Just as he was "working from Wyoming, last year, when Bush was playing guitar and delivering a birthday cake to John McCain, while Katrina was destroying New Orleans, Mr. Cheney was again on vacation, at the same time that Mr. Bush was....this year, when the first "red alert" terror warning in post 9/11, US history was issued:
Quote:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0060810-2.html
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 10, 2006
Press Gaggle by Tony Snow
Aboard Air Force One
En route Green Bay, Wisconsin
9:33 A.M. CDT
.........Q When did the President first learn about this plot and the investigation into it?
MR. SNOW: Again, we're being a little careful on operational details. I think it's safe to say to what I said before, which is he certainly has been extensively briefed over the last few days as the operation that took place became more and more imminent.
Q Was part of that during the teleconference on Sunday?
MR. SNOW: Let's see, what day was Sunday, that was the 6th? Yes. Yes. ....
.........Q Are there details about his talk with Blair overnight, you can give? What time it occurred?
MR. SNOW: There was no overnight. That report is false, so there are no details on the fallacious report.
<h3>Q But the President, himself, approved the red alert?
MR. SNOW: Correct. It was a recommendation by the Homeland Security Council, by Secretary Chertoff and others.
Q When did he approve it?
MR. SNOW: Yesterday..........</h3>
.......Q Can I ask you about timing again -- not to keep harping on this, but yesterday when you talked about raising the white -- you know, saying the Democrats might want to raise the white flag --
MR. SNOW: This was not done in anticipation. It was not said with the knowledge that this was coming.
<b?Q So the Vice President, when he did his incredibly rare conference call with reporters, also didn't know about it at the time?</b>
MR. SNOW: I don't think so. You'll have to ask, but I can say from our point of view at that point we didn't.
Q Can you say anything about the possible al Qaeda connection?
MR. SNOW: No.
Q Can I ask on a different topic? Can you clarify the Karl Rove call to Joe Lieberman and what that was all about?
MR. SNOW: It was a personal call. Yes, as I sent you -- in fact, I may get Karl back here, if you're interested.
Q Yes.
MR. SNOW: It's probably best to let him describe, because he was in on the call. But this was not a call after the polls closed; it was not a political offer; it was not a political conversation. It was a personal conversation. And, you know, he's expressed some willingness to do it, so maybe I'll just grab him -- yank his tie and make him come back here.
Q That would be great. .......
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So....at 10:30 am., EDT, Tony Snow tells the press that Bush made the decision to issue the "red alert", "yesterday"....that would be on Aug. 9th, the day that Cheney was making a rare teleconference from his vacation location in Jackson, Wyoming, sending the message of fear against more voting, that is anything similar to the Connecticut "anti-war" vote agains Joe Lieberman.
<b>When I was writing my new TFP thread, titled, "Huh?", Cheney already knew about the red "terror" alert, but I didn't !</b>
You can read on the "Huh?" thread, the comments that republicans were making....after Bush has already authorized a "red alert", but before the world was told.....
Now, there is this:
Quote:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14320452/
Source: U.S., U.K. at odds over timing of arrests
British wanted to continue surveillance on terror suspects, official says
By Aram Roston, Lisa Myers, and the NBC News Investigative Unit
NBC News
Updated: 7:13 p.m. ET Aug 12, 2006
LONDON - NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant disagreement over when to move in on the suspects in the alleged plot to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.
A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.
In contrast to previous reports, the official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have passports......
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We have a phony, domestic terror campaign, IMO, telegraphed by "terrorist",
US leaders, too lazy and disrespectful of the rest of us, to even give up enough of their own vacation time to make the "terror" seem convincing....