Terrorist Stockpile

“I don’t think there was actually a plot, beyond some fairly loose talk and his coming in here obviously to plan further deeds.”
-Deputy Dense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz on CBS News about the Dirty Bomb Plot, as reported by Reuters, 6/13

Since Abdullah al-Muhajir (nee Jose Padilla) was picked up on May 8, and since Ashcroft’s announcement over a month later was precipitated by no relevant event, and since Ashcroft wildly overstated both the readiness of the plotters (they were just talking) and the damage a dirty bomb would do (it might kill scores, not hundreds of thousands), it’s only rational to assume that the announcement was timed for Bush’s maximum political advantage. Has anyone advanced any other reasonable explanation?

So we also have to assume that the administration is stockpiling Abdullah al-Muhajir’s who have been “picked up,” ready to be announced the next time the Bush crowd thinks there’s a political advantage to scaring the crap out of us and our children.

If lying about getting blow jobs from an intern is an impeachable offense, what’s the penalty for spreading panic among an already frightened citizenry because it helps you stay re-electable?

Eric Norlin, who is “incentivized” by a small explosive capsule implanted next to his heart not to tell us too much of what he knows, says that the news was timed to “learn about the inner workings of the [terrorist] organization. ”

Even assuming that there were no political considerations in the timing, that doesn’t explain why Ashcroft’s announcement wildly over-stated the stage of the plans and the effect of a dirty bomb. The terrorists are not the only ones being manipulated here.

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