Administration attacked after 'scary' bin Laden threat

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060122/pl_afp/usattacksqaeda_060122183031;_ylt=AniOsQllrGsT3BVuVoj1Bzas0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MjBwMWtkBHNlYwM3MTg-


Administration attacked after 'scary' bin Laden threat

Sun Jan 22, 1:41 PM ET

US lawmakers urged the US administration to raise the domestic terror alert level, following new threats by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"I've just written to Michael Chertoff, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, urging that he focus on whether we need to raise our threat level," Representative Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record), top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC television.

The US intelligence community, Harman said, has assessed the threat in bin Laden's new message and "takes it seriously."

The United States last week rejected a truce offer from Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, and despite a threat of more attacks, authorities said they will not raise the national alert level.

[jsamuel]

1. "I'm really not that concerned about bin laden." - GWB

[INdemo]

8. This proves

that the terror alerts back during the election was just a front. This so called threat seems more serious.Im not so sure this latest bin laden tape wasn't manufactured by the Rove forces. If you saw the tape you'll see he looks pretty healthy or at least pretty good for being deprived of dialysis treatments...

[drm604]

15. I'm pretty sure this latest one is just an audio tape.

No video. You may have been looking at an old tape.

[INdemo]

23. Oh well

I just caught the end of the news cast but they showed a healthy bin laden..well anyway with just an audio makes me even more suspicious.

[drm604]

27. You and me both.

See this discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=200794

[jimshoes]

16. Delete duplicate

dupe

[VegasWolf]

2. Bush forgot that not everyone is in on this feeble attempt to boost

Bush's sinking ratings. bin Laden tapes always show up at opportune times.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Amazing, isn't it?

They only raise the threat level when it's in the republican's political interest to do so, like before a holiday or an election. And funny how they've raised the threat level so many times when there was NO direct, verbal threat; but now that there has been one, there is no increase in threat level.

Kinda like they'll take the threat of a box cutter wielded by a 75 year old woman to be serious; but an NSA or CIA memo talking about Al Qeada smashing planes into buildings next month gets no attention at all.

Just more proof that these assholes let it happen the first time, and will let it happen again; and that they won't find Osama, because he's their most valuable asset.

[MatrixEscape]

4. Ah ...

Aggressors don't make truces, especially with dead men!

I just think the idea of offering a truce was a great way to underscore how tough and aggressive the US is. Peace won't come by truce ... ever! That would spoil the game, anyway.

The timing of the OBL tape is great. Pres-e-dent crosses the Constitutional Rubicon ... OBL steps up to the plate to back him up. Big Bro and Emmanuel Goldstein make a powerful, compelling team.

I agree with those who say, (via various sources) that OBL is dead. So, who then wrote/orchestrated the audio? It does not fit OBL's style well, so I would rule out the potential that it was pre-taped a while back.

[Solly Mack]

5. If Harman is so afraid, she can always go home and cover her house

in plastic and ducttape.


"Counterterror officials said they have seen no specific or credible intelligence to indicate an upcoming al-Qaida attack on the United States. Nor have they noticed an uptick in terrorist communications ``chatter'' - although that can dramatically increase or decrease immediately before an attack. "

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5558042,00.html

[HereSince1628]

6. I suspect this is a two-step use of fear mongering.

First, bring ObL back into the media. Although there is a threat in the message Bush is really using this to show his political opposition in on the same side of the argument as Al Qaeda.

If things get hotter for W they'll move to step two, which will be to say there is threat and they are going to a higher state of alert.

[NYC]

10. Maybe this is an effort by his political opposition

to show that it is not on the same side as Bin Laden?

Or an effort to call his bluff? If it's a scary threat, why don't we increase the color alert?

Who knows? Not I.

[HereSince1628]

14. Well, is it a scary threat to you? It's not a scary threat to me.

It sure as hell isn't scary to the Bush propaganda team who might have put it together. The content of the thing is classic Roverian.

[NYC]

18. No, it isn't scary to me.

We don't even get color changes in NYC. We've been orange since 9/11. (At least it is one of our flag colors.)

Isn't Bush Co. claiming it's scary? I think they should change the national bird from the eagle to Chicken Little.

[rodeodance]

7. and Cheney doing his fear factor jig

.....Vice President Dick Cheney said after the bin Laden tape surfaced that Al-Qaeda's failure to mount a new attack showed that Washington's strategy is working.

"The fact of the matter is, we have not been attacked in more than four years. That is not an accident, it's not just dumb luck," Cheney said.

Kerry refuted that.

"One of the reasons we haven't been attacked here is because they are being so successful at doing what they need to do to attack us in
Iraq and elsewhere," the Democratic lawmaker said.

[RedSock]

11. Ari admitted the alerts were fake

Back in May 2002, when the August 6 PDB was making headlines and Cynthia McKinney was pushing * on prior knowledge of 9/11, the terror alert also was raised.

Later in the week, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer actually admitted to Helen Thomas that the alerts were issued "more as a result of all the controversy that took place last week."

No shit.

Village Voice, 5/23/02
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0222,gray-web1,35145,6.html

The Washington Times also reported this -- 5/22/02 -- but I do not have the link.

[Windy]

9. The administration doesn't want to stop him....they need to

rally support for an attack on Iran and to futher take away our rights in this country...

[Rex]

12. So OBL threatens more attacks, but the DHS won't raise the threat level?

Just more proof that the DHS is a fraudulent as the Bush WH. How much MONEY did they make off of that scam? More than the S&L scandal? More than Iran/Contra? I bet Iraq is the worst.

[aquart]

24. Bush isn't making any attempt to find the cockroach, either, is he?

[Maggie_May]

13. We should be scared the first attack happen on his watch.

Do I trust this government in national security NO. Look what happen when Katrina hit.

[drduffy]

17. is she spouting this crap for politics or

does she really believe this was actually OBL

yes, whom does it (OBL's little tape) benefit? We are all dancing around the obvious. Either it is a fake bin Laudin tape (verified by the CIA, oh my?) or bin Laudin is a patsy for BushCo.

It only benefits BushCo. ... just as another 'terra-ist' attack would only benefit BushCo. - unless it thankfully took out all of the neocons.

[lovuian]

19. No Alerts and remember they relaxed the safety restrictions on

planes we can scissors and nail files and knitting needles...

[RedSock]

25. ICE PICKS and BOW & ARROWS are also legal

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/12/AR2005081201557.html
Washington Post, August 23, 2005:

************
Airline Security Changes Planned
Threats Reassessed To Make Travel Easier for Public
By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 13, 2005; Page A01

The new head of the Transportation Security Administration has called for a broad review of the nation's air security system to update the agency's approach to threats and reduce checkpoint hassles for passengers.

Edmund S. "Kip" Hawley, an assistant secretary of homeland security, directed his staff to propose changes in how the agency screens 2 million passengers a day. The staff's first set of recommendations, detailed in an Aug. 5 document, includes proposals to lift the ban on various carry-on items such as scissors, razor blades and knives less than five inches long. It also proposes that passengers no longer routinely be required to remove their shoes at security checkpoints. ...

The proposal also would allow ice picks, throwing stars and bows and arrows on flights. Allowing those items was suggested after a risk evaluation was conducted about which items posed the most danger. ...
************

[Trillo]

20. "Duke Professor Skeptical of bin Laden Tape"

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=local&id=3828678
(this link was referenced somewhere on DU in the last several days, I cannot attribute it properly)

Does the administration know that this latest Bin Laden tape isn't authentic?

[wishlist]

22. Bush Admin should either take the tape seriously or admit it's bogus n/t

[wishlist]

21. Jane Harmon also asked Matthews how he feels about being wiretapped

Glad she is out in front on the OBL issue, pointing out right wing hypocrisy in not taking the tape seriously while trying to link OBL to Dems. Last week on Hardball, Chris Matthews tried to drown out her pointed question to him about how he would feel about being wiretapped illegally, but she persisted in repeating her question until he looked embarrassed after he had tried unsuccessfully to hammer her with right wing talking points justifying the wiretapping.

[stillcool]

26. This tape is such a repeat...

of pre-election '04. When I read the transcript of it on AlJazeera's site...I found it to be a perfectly logical treatise on the world, ala a pissed off Middle-easterner...far more so than any words that I've ever heard pass through *'s lips. So then, I felt guilty. And, it really surprised me. Here, I've never believed the 9/11 'story', but because I feel sympathy to whoever the author is...well...I surely must be a traitor. Shortly after this conjugated in my brain, I started reading posts about binLaden's supporters.. the democrats, from the brilliant minds of KKKRove etal.,..and it made much more sense in that insidious way things do these days. And once again...I fell for it.. played like a violin...what a sucker... but you have to admit, they've hired better writers.

[teryang]

28. Nobody takes it seriously

The tape was created in Karl Roves basement.