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Last night, I watched Keith Olbermann deliver his third version of "The Nexus of Politics and Terror," in which he provides a timeline of events negative to the White House or attention-getting for the Democrats juxtaposed with terror alerts and announcements of the breakup of terrorist "plots." As I did, I recalled the first two versions Keith did of this timeline--on October 12, 2005 and August 15, 2006--neither of which, of course, included the very recent pizza-guys or JFK pipeline-bomber plots, yet both contained just as many incidents as last night's version, so I knew Keith had to have cut a few out of this one to squeeze in the latest examples. I also recalled that in his earliest presentation of this timeline in October 2005, Keith had included on his blog three "bonus" incidents he had not presented on the actual broadcast due to time limitations.
I thought, if I went back to the original transcripts for those shows, and to this one, and back to his blog for the 2005 version, I'd be able to reconstruct the full timeline of all the incidents--including anything Keith cut out of last night's version and the "bonus" incidents from 2005. Then I'd have one big mega-transcript of all the incidents Keith noted on his timeline, from 2002 through this past weekend, in a handy, easy-to-read version.
So that's what I did.
The grand total of Nexus of Politics and Terror incidents Keith has accumulated so far? Not ten. Sixteen.
Here they are--for the first time, to my knowledge, all in one place (and you can't find this on video, because three of these were never committed to video)--all 16 of Keith Olbermann's noted incidents in the Nexus of Politics and Terror.
Number One:
May 18, 2002: The first details of the President’s Daily Briefing of August 6, 2001, are 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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The terror warnings from the highest levels of the federal government, tonight are...
OLBERMANN: Two days later, FBI Director Mueller declares that another terrorist attack is "inevitable."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tonight there are even more warnings...
OLBERMANN: 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 6, 2002:
COLEEN ROWLEY, FBI AGENT: I never really anticipated this kind of impact.
OLBERMANN: 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.
Monday June 10, 2002, four days later...
JOHN ASHCROFT, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot.
OLBERMANN: 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 5, 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 UN or U.S. first strike. Many in the UN are doubtful. Months later, much of the information proves untrue.
February 7, 2003: Two days later, as anti-war demonstrations continue to take place around the globe…
TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Take some time to prepare for an emergency...
OLBERMANN: 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 23, 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 29, 2003: Three days later, amid all of those negative headlines…
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Word of a new possible Al Qaeda attack...
OLBERMANN: Homeland Security issues warnings of further terrorist attempts to use airplanes for suicide attacks.
Number Five:
December 17, 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 21, 2003: Four days later, the Sunday before Christmas…
RIDGE: Today the United States government raised the national threat level.
OLBERMANN: 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 canceled 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 5-year-old boy.
Number Six:
March 30, 2004: The new chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Charles Duelfer, tells Congress "we have still not found any WMD in that country" and, after weeks of having refused to appear before the 9/11 Commission, Condoleezza Rice 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 now widely questioned.
April 2, 2004:
BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: The FBI has issued a new warning tonight...
OLBERMANN: 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. Bombs stuffed into satchels or duffle bags.
Number Seven:
May 16, 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 UN in laying out a case against Saddam Hussein. An aide to Powell interrupts the question, saying the interview is over.
TIM RUSSERT, "MEET THE PRESS": I think that was one of your staff. Mr. Secretary. I don’t think that’s appropriate.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: Get--Emily, get out of the way.
OLBERMANN: Powell finishes his answer, admitting that much of the information he had been given about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was…
POWELL: ...inaccurate and wrong and in some cases deliberately misleading.
OLBERMANN: May 21, 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.
Wednesday May 26, 2004, two days later: Attorney General Ashcroft and FBI Director Mueller warn that intelligence from multiple sources…
ASHCROFT: …indicates Al Qaeda’s specific intention to hit the United States hard.
OLBERMANN: ...and that 90 percent of the arrangements for an attack on the United States are complete. The color-coded warning system is not raised. Homeland Security Secretary Ridge does not attend the announcement.
Number Eight:
July 6, 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 toward the Democratic campaign.
July 8, 2004: Two days later…
RIDGE: Credible reporting now indicates Al Qaeda is moving forward with its plan to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States.
OLBERMANN: 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 Jr., 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 29, 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 1, 2004: Three days later…
RIDGE: It is as reliable a source--a group of sources as we’ve ever seen before.
OLBERMANN: 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:
October 6, 2005: At 10 a.m. 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 p.m. 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.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR: We‘re awaiting a news conference at the bottom of the hour...
OLBERMANN: At 5:17 p.m. 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. counterterrorism official tells The New York Times: "There was no there, there."
Number Eleven:
October 22, 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. Moreover, 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 “a little gift.”
Number Twelve:
May 5, 2005: Eighty-eight 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 11, 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 26, 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 29, 2005: The next day, another private pilot veers into restricted airspace, the Capitol is again evacuated, and this time, so is the President.
Number Fourteen:
A sequence of events in August 2006 best understood now in chronological order. As the month begins, the controversy over domestic surveillance without legal warrants in this country crests. Then, on August 9, the day after the Connecticut Democratic senatorial primary, Vice President Cheney says the victory of challenger Ned Lamont over incumbent Joe Lieberman is a positive for the “Al Qaeda types,” who, he says, “are clearly betting on the proposition that ultimately they will break the will of the American people, in terms of our ability to stay in the fight.”
The next day, British authorities arrest 24 suspects in an alleged imminent plot to blow up U.S.-bound aircraft using liquid explosives smuggled on board in sports drink bottles. Domestic air travel is thrown into chaos as carry-on liquids are suddenly banned.
On August 14, British intelligence reveals it did not think the plot was imminent. Only the U.S. did. And our authorities pressed to make the arrests. Eleven of the 24 suspect are later released. And in the months to come, the carry-on liquids ban is repeatedly relaxed.
Number Fifteen:
May 7, 2007: Greensburg, Kansas, is leveled by a tornado and the state’s governor notes, more in sorrow than in anger, that the redeployment of so much of the Kansas National Guard and its equipment to Iraq might now cripple the soldiers’ ability to respond if another disaster hits Kansas.
GOV. KATHLEEN SEBELIUS (D), KANSAS: What we‘re really missing is equipment. And that is putting a strain on recoveries like this one.
OLBERMANN: The next day, the authorities announce arrests in a far-fetched plan to attack soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey. The so-called terrorists planned to gain access to the base by posing as pizza delivery men. It is not a suicide mission. They state clearly, they intended to kill personnel and then retreat to safety, even though they were going to attack a closed compound, full of trained soldiers with weapons. And though the plan is branded sophisticated, its perpetrators are not sophisticated enough to have not handed over the videotape of themselves training with weapons to a Circuit City store in order to be transferred to DVD. The Fort Dix plot not only erases from most news coverage the issue of disaster readiness in Kansas, but it also obscures the next day’s story that in anticipation of his testimony to a House panel, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has submitted opening remarks that match, virtually word for word, the remarks he had given the previous month to a Senate committee.
ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Recognizing my limited involvement in the process, a mistake I freely acknowledge--a mistake that I freely acknowledge, I have soberly questioned my prior decisions.
Number 16:
June 2007: The JFK plot to blow up the jet fuel pipeline feeding John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, thus causing the entire airport to be consumed in an horrific conflagration. One of the men arrested has, as past employee access, to the sprawling complex, but little knowledge of the reality of the pipeline system.
The manager of that system tells The New York Times that the pipeline is not some kind of fuse. Shutoff valves throughout would have easily contained any damage, just as a leak in a tunnel in any city would not flood everything in that city below ground. The so-called plot happens to be revealed the day before the second Democratic presidential debate.
And as the scandal continues to unfold over the firings of U.S. attorneys, and their replacements by political hacks, the so called plot is announced by the Bush-appointed U.S. attorney for Brooklyn, New York, and by the police chief of New York City, the father of a correspondent for Fox News Channel.
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