Terror trial blown away - and it's all George Bush's fault

[True_Blue]

Source: Times Online

‘Thank you, that’s fine for today,” George W Bush says, as he dismisses a half-dozen attendees of his morning intelligence briefing and settles behind the world’s most famous desk. He’s agitated, doing his best to get things in order before he leaves for his annual August vacation.

It is July 27, 2006. His best-laid plans for this summer are already in tatters. It was to be a season to focus on his strengths, with the mid-term elections just over three months away. Except everything, and everyone, has been conspiring against him. His poll numbers are in the basement. Casualties in Iraq have been steadily rising. Israel is sinking deeper each day into a disastrous engagement with a stronger-than-expected Hezbollah. It’s a mess.

What’s driving Bush’s calculations at the moment is the just-finished intelligence briefing. It involved a plot that he’s been hearing about for some time. The British have been working it since last year: a major terrorist cell in the suburbs of London. While it’s their case — they’ve made that very clear — US involvement has deepened as the tentacles of the cell have spread across Britain and into Pakistan.

With about 40 suspects sending plenty of e-mails and making calls, the Brits have had to rely on what Bush likes to call the “firepower of Fort Meade”, the massive National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance complex in the Maryland hills.

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4740814.ece

[lostnotforgotten]

1. Maryland Hills? - Flat As A Pancake From What I Remember

eom

[adsdan]

4. .. why is that relevant? Flat, hilly, whatever ... this is a stunning indictment

... I like last paragraph - "The most knowledgeable British anti-terrorism officials are the most outraged. Before dawn breaks in the UK, they’re already assessing the damage from what one calls a “forced, foolish hastiness”. But the White House already has a media strategy in place to leverage news of the thwarted attack, “the worst since 9/11”. All that’s left to do is wait a few hours until sunrise, when the arrests will hit the US news cycles and the president and vice-president can register surprise about how right they’ve been all along, about everything.

© Ron Suskind 2008"

[lostnotforgotten]

10. I Used To Work There - Hills Is An Overstatement At Best

eom

[badgervan]

7. Lots of Hills....

... in the eastern part of the state, where there are many government complexes that we aren't supposed to know about. Better hiding and better reception.

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. Ron Suskind kicks ass!

Just finished his book, The Way of the World a couple of days ago.

A real page turner!

[santamargarita]

3. This was out once before - I hope it sticks this time

K&R

[Mnpaul]

5. Bush blew it in 2004 as well

More interested in getting re-elected than catching the terrorists.

Americablog has the details
http://www.americablog.com/2005/07/bush-admin-may-be-responsible-for.html

[benh57]

6. sigh

The sad thing is, from the polls, people STILL rate the repubs higher on national security.

So depressing.

[Solly Mack]

8. K&R

[annabanana]

9. We heard about this at the time . . .

(buried in bits & snips in domestic press - front page in UK) It was a PERFECT example of how poorly designed the BUSH response to 9/11 was.

The much derided "police work" that requires patience and copious, multi-sourced intel turns out to be the ONLY way to fight these guys...

[DeepModem Mom]

11. K&R

[Johnyawl]

12. And it didn't help bush at all...

...they blow this entire operation, screw up everything the British had been working on, the plotters walk free, and the republicans STILL got their asses kicked in the term elections.

karma, baby.