We got the news today, oh boy, of a National Intelligence Estimate. It reported that:
(W)e assess that al-Qa'ida will probably seek to leverage the contacts and capabilities of al-Qa'ida in Iraq (AQI), its most visible and capable affiliate and the only one known to have expressed a desire to attack the Homeland
This is a most impressive bit of bureaucratic silly speak. I can't quite understand whether we are talking about terrorism, or about one of those cocktail parties attended by Wall Streeters trying to exchange business cards and build their networks.
It never occurred to me that there were any cable affiliates (sorry, I do mean capable affiliates) of Al-Qa'ida that had not expressed a desire to attack the Homeland." Have their standards fallen?
I'm a New Yorker who is typing this while looking out a window from which I used to see the World Trade Center. I do not belittle the damage that Al-Qa'ida has done. But I fail to see why the N.I.E. should not be called "pure pablum" - as Richard Clarke and others did today.
The administration wants to underscore the level of the threat, but at the same time seeks credit for weakening AL-Aida. The White House's Fran Townsend said:
Al QED is weaker today than if we had not taken strong action against them.
In the next breath, they insist that we appreciate just how threatened we are. ABC reported :
last week that senior law enforcement and intelligence officials had "multiple and credible" reports that an AL QED terror cell may be on its way to the United States or could already be in the country.
As nice as it might have been, the capture of Saddam Hussein was unrelated to strong action against Al-Qaida. Dealing with Osama bin-Laden, still free in the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistan border, would have had something to do with Al-Qaida.
In most American's eyes, Bush was not held responsible for 9/11. Who could have known? He was in the White House such a short time! The Presidential Daily Briefing was an historical document! He was responsible then, and if, God forbid, there is another attack, he'll be responsible again.
(h/t memorandum)
Comments