eatatjoesplace
Bush Administration Politicizing British Success Arresting Terrorists and Endangering Americans at Home
British officials involved in the break-up of the terrorism plot say that they wanted to continue surveillance for another week to increase the number of terrorists arrested, but the Bush Administration pressured them to arrest only the first 21 terrorists a week early. They were forced to arrest them before the terrorists bought plane tickets or got passports. Apparently the Bush Administration needed news of the capture just after Ned Lamont’s victory in Connecticut to torpedo his campaign.
[T]he Bush Administration and leaders of Congress knew about the danger of liquid explosives aboard planes for months (or years as this report says) but did nothing until now. Conservative Aviation Security Expert, Michael Boyd, explains (in this video and in this Congressional Report) that the Bush Administration is still doing little to protect Americans from airline terror.
Right wingers here in the US are trumpeting the British arrests as evidence that Bush’s warrantless wiretapping of American citizens worked. The only problem is that all of the wiretaps in this case were the result of court issued warrants proving that warrentFUL wiretaps work stopping terrorists. Again these arrests prove that getting warrants leads to successful arrests of terrorists. British law enforcement officers got warrants in British courts and US law enforcement officers got warrants from the FISA courts for wiretaps. Just the way it’s supposed to work—and IT DID WORK! Proving there is no need for warrantless wiretaps.
Conservative news host Lou Dobbs reports that the Bush Administration Defense Department and FAA lied to America and the 9/11 Commission about the events of September 11 and the two men Bush appointed to lead the 9/11 Commission agree saying Americans still don’t have the complete story from the administration.
ABC News reports:
While the British terror suspects were hatching their plot, the Bush administration was quietly seeking permission to divert $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new homeland explosives detection technology.
Congressional leaders rejected the idea, the latest in a series of steps by the Homeland Security Department that has left lawmakers and some of the department’s own experts questioning the commitment to create better anti-terror technologies.
Homeland Security’s research arm, called the Sciences & Technology Directorate, is a "rudderless ship without a clear way to get back on course," Republican and Democratic senators on the Appropriations Committee declared recently.
Think about that: the Bush Administration tried to divert the money to detect the type of explosives British terrorists tried to smuggle aboard US bound planes and Homeland Security’s research arm is a rudderless ship without a clear way to get back on course to protecting Americans according to both Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
Do you really trust your family’s safety to Bush and the Republicans who repeatedly ignore threats to US safety? If not, you need to vote for change in November for a safer tomorrow. Your life and your family’s lives may depend upon it.
!!!!!! Update !!!!!: British officials are furious with the US Administration for “jumping the gun” by declaring that al-Qaeda was behind the airline terror plot according to British sources.
It is understood that Britain asked the US to avoid making any such assertion, but diplomats believe that the request was ignored by Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security chief. There is suspicion that the speed with which the US linked al-Qaeda to the plot was motivated by political considerations because, before the November mid-term Congressional elections, Republicans are keen to stem voter anger against the Iraq war by focusing on national security.
One senior UK source said that with the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaching, “al-Qaeda is a term which is understood by swing voters”. He added: “We regard this as simplistic.”
On Thursday morning Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Secretary, used a press conference to point the finger of blame directly at al-Qaeda. Initially, he picked his words carefully, saying that the sophistication of the operation was “suggestive of alQaeda”, while acknowledging this was a “sensitive area for the British legal system”.
He later said that the plan was reminiscent of that “hatched by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [the al-Qaeda mastermind behind 9/11] in the 1990s” to blow up aircraft travelling over the Pacific.
Chertoff and other Bush Administration officials were saying the same thing on all of the news programs on Sunday in the US. Once again PROOF POSITIVE that the Bush Administration is politicizing terrorism to try to get votes in the 2006 election. If a Democratic president tried to pull this crap he'd be impeached!
None of the US news programs on Sunday featuring Chertoff and other Bush Administration officials making these claims were challenged by reporters. The Subservient Lapdog Corporate Mainstream Media in the US just airs these claims without question. Any wonder who the Corporate Owners of those stations favor? I didn’t think so. Why is it that British people get this news (from the conservative Times of London no less), but American voters are shielded from this information? Vote Democratic in November and write to the media telling them that you won’t buy from their advertisers as long as they continue to censor the news from American viewers.