Tuning out the boys who cry wolf

[babylonsister]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/015391.php

Tuning out the boys who cry wolf
07.15.07 -- 10:42AM
By Steve Benen

The New York Daily News reports today that the possibility of a domestic terrorist attack this summer appears high, but Americans are skeptical about the warnings.

To American who have grown skeptical of terrorism warnings, the professionals in the intelligence community say they understand. They also say this time, it could be for real.

That's because the level of worldwide jihadist activity this year appears disturbingly familiar to those who hunted Al Qaeda even before the 9/11 attacks.

"What you've been seeing has had a feeling, to me, a lot like the summer of 2001, where you've got a lot of things happening," a senior U.S. intelligence official said on Friday.

"It would not surprise me at all to see another terrorist event this summer in the United States," the official told the Daily News.

Yet many Americans have grown deeply distrustful of such doomsday scenarios which rarely materialize.

This skepticism didn't just materialize as a result of wishful thinking. Americans have grown to be suspicious of Bush administration's warnings because so many of them have been bogus.

The "Seas of David" cult's planned attack on the Sears Tower, the plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge, the British hijacking plot, the plot to attack Los Angeles' Library Tower, the plans at Fort Dix, and the JFK Airport plot all turned out to be less serious than advertised. And yet, in each instance, the White House touted these thwarted attacks as dodged bullets. This contributes the public perception that the administration is less than reliable when it comes to domestic security.

For that matter, Americans have also seen the administration fiddle with the terror alert system in irresponsible ways. Two years ago, former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge acknowledged that the Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks based on flimsy evidence. "There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?'" Ridge told reporters.

And it certainly doesn't help when the administration's top official on homeland security explains that his concerns about a possible attack this summer are based on a "gut feeling."

Yes, the Daily News report raises an important point; Americans shouldn't take a lackadaisical attitude about a possible threat. But let's not forget how and why the public has come to be so cynical.

[Terri S]

1. Keith Olbermann has shown EXACTLY why the public is skeptical

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIs_UgeVAqM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjwWmg5LD_s

We aren't complacent .. we're just not blind to manipulation.

[babylonsister]

2. Thanks for the links; he's my dessert every night! nt

[Terri S]

3. mmm.... mine too! :) n/t

[JacquesMolay]

4. Wag the dog...

.. remember the 'Color Codes'? I haven't heard which level we're at?

[jimshoes]

5. We're at mild indigestion

on the "chertoff" scale from what I hear.

[spoony]

6. Great conclusion, k and r

[John Q. Citizen]

7. We aready know who the terrorist are. They spend billions and kill millions.

How many die each year in the states so that private insurance companies can make big profits on shuffling paper?

The odds that any American or European or Israeli for that matter will die or be injured by terrorism is miniscule comparefd to, say a traffic death. 10,000 Eroupeans died from global warming summer heat. But let's not talk about that.

The reason they promote the fear of terrorism is not because the risk is high but because the risk to the ruling class is high in the political sense. That's why terrorism works. It scares the hell out of the elites not in causualties but in political unrest, and loss of political control of populations.