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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, August 10, 2006

A VERY crass question

Yesterday, when Tony Snow made his totally unsolicited, fairly lengthy comment that voting for Ned Lamont would lead to more 9/11's, do you think the White House knew about the coming arrests that happened just hours later?

What if I added this? "Britain's Home Secretary John Reid said 21 people had been arrested in London, its suburbs and in Birmingham following a lengthy investigation."

Later: Cheney hit the talking point yesterday, too.

As proof, ABCNews' The Blotter is reporting that the arrests may have been accelerated days ago after a couple of arrests in Pakistan. Also,
British authorities had been tracking some of the suspects for several weeks but stepped in to round up the plotters when they began to book flight reservations.

British authorities have shared parts of the investigation with the FBI, and out of concern for leaks, only the barest details were shared with regional authorities as late as last night.

So, while the White House (Cheney, Snow, Mehlman) was orchestrating the "vote for Lamont equals a vote for terrorism" campaign, they certainly knew that these arrests were on the horizon.

7 Comments:

  • NO one is more crass than our President.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 8:33 AM  

  • Crass? You think these folks worry about that?

    No questiom. Nothing this crew says or does would surprise me one little bit.

    By Blogger QuakerDave, at 8:49 AM  

  • Tony Snow is the press secretary. I wouldn't think that his job is to spout forth propaganda that isn't directly related to the administration's attempt to spin $3 gas, 2500 dead soldiers, a collapsing housing market and hey I just lowered my insurance at Progressive.com!

    When I was a kid the Irish Republican Army was a terrorist organisation that was in the news. One thing I explicitly remember was that they always had some demands from the Brits gov't. Like freeing prisoners, call off the police beatings of teenagers and in general get the hell out of Northern Ireland.

    For the last 5 years I haven't heard any certain demands from the Al Queda gang. Not a peep. The only spin I hear on the news is that some Muslim wants Israel wiped off the map. Ok, but that's not a demand, a quid pro quo or anything resembling a request or exchanged.

    What kind of terrorist organisation kills people but then makes no demands? Mossad/MI6/CIA Who?

    By Blogger matt, at 8:57 AM  

  • I think your observation is right on the mark. I listened to the DHS briefing and noticed that Chertoff and Gonzales both made statements milking the event to the administration's advantage.

    Since they noted an "al-Qaeda footprint" and Saddam has an airtight alibi, they will probably be blaming Iran's president for the plot and Lamont for aiding and abetting.

    Osama you say... no, there are still no good targets in Afghanistan.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:13 AM  

  • The danger to the GOP majority is really scary - they jumped right over the Orange Alert and went straight to Code Red.

    Geez, desperate times call for desperate measures, so I guess a Code Red was in order.

    BTW, the blonde anchorwoman on MSNBC told terror expert Evan Coleman that "today is the greatest day in the war on terror since 9/11."

    The greatest day since 9/11?

    Doesn't that statement seem to suggest that 9/11 was "a great day"?

    Ugh. The spin and bamboozlement on this is fucking disgusting.

    What's the Vegas line Over/Under on terror alerts before November 7th? We've already had one and I bet we've got at least another two or three disrupted plots and/or terror alerts to come.

    By Blogger Reality-Based Educator, at 11:06 AM  

  • I fear you are correct. These men will stop at nothing to continue their silly folly in Iraq. (I still say more troops, not less. Or pull them all out.)

    By Blogger Bravo 2-1, at 11:42 AM  

  • First off, just an observation. (Thumbnail math) Iraq, a country of 22 million and falling, loses the equivalent of an airliner's worth of people to violent deaths every two days.

    Time and Dave, I wrote that post header within minutes of waking up. I didn't want to go too far before reading the stories, but now that I have, it's just not strong enough.

    Guy, the demands towards the US are primarily US out of arab nations, specifically Saudi. You're right. That doesn't get reported much, because it's not going to happen.

    Mustard, the phrase that I liked was "suggestive" of Al Qaeda.

    Reality, yeah. I noticed CNN went no commercials on this which is pretty weird considering that the story is pretty much completed. The only new developments are details.

    And, I'm gonna go low on the over/under. There's either going to be one or two very serious or a thousand little ones to create an overall impression.

    I'll be really curious to see how this plays politically. I'm not sure it's the locked in benefit. It'll work with the base surely, but outside of that, how much will be towards blame rather than protection? Have we seen anything on their claimed motivation? Iraq? Lebanon? That'll change alot.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 11:45 AM  

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