Playing Politics with Terror Alerts

Let me see if i have this straight...

The government is continuously receiving and understanding tons of raw data every day regarding terrorist threats and activities. Some of it turns out to be true, some bogus. The stuff that the people translating and digesting this information then pass it up the chain of command where it gets further study and understanding.

Eventually, after being strained and thouroughly checked, some of it reaches Tom Ridge who then needs to decide if the threat is worthy of an alert. If it is, then he goes on TV and tells people that credible sources have shown that a threat has been discovered and we should be aware of it.

Meanwhile, other information is continually coming in and that info needs to be translated and researched. If new information comes in that makes old intelligence obsolete, then that is taken into consideration.

Let's take the presidential briefing that outlined the fact that Osama wanted to attack the US as an example. It was vague, had few details, and was mostly speculative. Yet it made it's way through to Bush. Today, that information gets handled differently. Threats like that are taken more seriously. But, instead of taking those threats seriously, we have gotten to the point where some would rather complain about them and discuss how they are being used and political leverage instead of being taken as they are intended, warnings of impending possible terrorist activities.

The warnings are what get publicized, imagine what doesn't. Imagine the tons of information that pours into our intelligence agancies every day that has to be processed and understood.

Now, was the latest alert used for political posturing? I don't know. I do know that they ahd information and they warned us about it.

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McGentrix wrote:

Let me see if i have this straight...

I think we already know the answer to that question, McG.

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LOL

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joefromchicago wrote:

McGentrix wrote:
Let me see if i have this straight...

I think we already know the answer to that question, McG.

Quite the zinger, Joe. Is that all you got on the subject?

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McGentrix wrote:

joefromchicago wrote:
McGentrix wrote:
Let me see if i have this straight...

I think we already know the answer to that question, McG.

Quite the zinger, Joe. Is that all you got on the subject?

Many people mistakenly believe that the key to comedy is a good punch line. They're wrong: it's a good straight line. That's why, in vaudeville, the straight man got a 60% cut of the team's pay and the comedian got only 40%. Offer up a good straight line and the punch line practically writes itself.

So is that all I have on the subject? Well, McG, keep talking and we'll see.

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The government is continuously receiving and understanding tons of raw data every day regarding terrorist threats and activities. Some of it turns out to be true, some bogus. The stuff that the people translating and digesting this information then pass it up the chain of command where it gets further study and understanding.

Eventually, after being strained and thouroughly checked, some of it reaches Tom Ridge who then needs to decide if the threat is worthy of an alert. If it is, then he goes on TV and tells people that credible sources have shown that a threat has been discovered and we should be aware of it.

Meanwhile, other information is continually coming in and that info needs to be translated and researched. If new information comes in that makes old intelligence obsolete, then that is taken into consideration.

Let's take the presidential briefing that outlined the fact that Osama wanted to attack the US as an example. It was vague, had few details, and was mostly speculative. Yet it made it's way through to Bush. Today, that information gets handled differently. Threats like that are taken more seriously. But, instead of taking those threats seriously, we have gotten to the point where some would rather complain about them and discuss how they are being used and political leverage instead of being taken as they are intended, warnings of impending possible terrorist activities.

The warnings are what get publicized, imagine what doesn't. Imagine the tons of information that pours into our intelligence agancies every day that has to be processed and understood.

Now, was the latest alert used for political posturing? I don't know. I do know that they had information and they warned us about it.

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McGentrix wrote:

Let me see if i have this straight...

By all means.

Let's let you get this straight.

From the Washington Post (no link, you won't bother anyway):

Quote:

"Most of the al-Qaeda surveillance of five financial institutions that led to a new terrorism alert Sunday was conducted before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and authorities are not sure whether the casing of the buildings has continued, numerous intelligence and law enforcement officials said yesterday... 'There is nothing right now that we're hearing that is new,' said one senior law enforcement official who was briefed on the alert. 'Why did we go to this level? I still don't know that.'"

The data was three years old.

Tom Ridge, in his Sunday remarks, said, "President Bush has told you, and I have reiterated the promise, that when we have specific credible information, that we will share it. Now this afternoon, we do have new and unusually specific information about where al-Qaeda would like to attack."

The data was three years old.

Quote:

"The quality of this intelligence, based on multiple reporting streams in multiple locations, is rarely seen and it is alarming in both the amount and specificity of the information."

The data was three years old.

"As of now," said Ridge on Sunday, "this is what we know: reports indicate that al-Qaeda is targeting several specific buildings, including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in the District of Columbia; Prudential Financial in Northern New Jersey; and Citigroup buildings and the New York Stock Exchange in New York."

The data was three years old.

Quote:

"I certainly realize that this is sobering news, not just about the intent of our enemies, but of their specific plans and a glimpse into their methods."

The data was three years old.

"But we must understand," said Ridge on Sunday, "that the kind of information available to us today is the result of the President's leadership in the war against terror."

Quote:

"We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security."

I hope you have got it now.

And a personal aside to Secretary Ridge:

GTFO, Tom. Now. Go make some money so you can put your kids through college, since you have made it clear you cannot do so on the $175,000 salary we are paying you. Go away, and don't come back to politics once your children graduate.

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How long should they have waited after first learning of this latest threat before alerting people? As I said, they had the data, then, after further investigation, they learned the data was three years old. The bombing of the embassies in Africa were in planning for 5 years. Does the age of a threat make it any less credible? How long did the plans for 9/11 take?

You seem to be hung up on the fact that the plans are 3 years old. Information has also shown that surveilance was done last January and that attacks may be made 60 days prior to election.

Better safe than sorry.

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 - Senior government officials said Tuesday that new intelligence pointing to a current threat of a terrorist attack on financial targets in New York and possibly in Washington - not just information about surveillance on specific buildings over the years - was a major factor in the decision over the weekend to raise the terrorism alert level.

The officials said the separate stream of intelligence, which they had not previously disclosed, reached the White House only late last week and was part of a flow that the officials said had prompted them to act urgently in the last few days.

The officials disclosed the information a day after the Bush administration acknowledged for the first time that much of the surveillance activity cited last weekend by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to justify the latest, specific warnings had been at least three years old. At the same time, the White House offered a vigorous defense of its decision to heighten the alert in Manhattan, Newark and Washington, with officials saying there was still good reason for alarm.

"I think it's wrong and plain irresponsible to suggest that it was based on old information,'' Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said of the heightened warning as President Bush traveled to Dallas on a campaign swing.

In an appearance in New York, Mr. Ridge responded forcefully to a question about whether election-year politics had played a part in determining how and when the intelligence was released.

"We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security,'' Mr. Ridge said.

He added: "The detail, the sophistication, the thoroughness of this information, if you had access to it, you'd say we did the right thing. Government should let the public know about situations like this. It's not about politics. It's about confidence in government telling you when they get the information.''

In addition to the surveillance activity, detailed in reports uncovered late last week from computer disks in Pakistan, a senior intelligence official said that "very current and recent activity on the part of Al Qaeda'' has left little doubt that "Al Qaeda is moving toward the execution stage of attacks here in the homeland.''

The language used by senior administration officials on Tuesday in warning of a possible attack was at least as strong as that Mr. Ridge used in announcing the alert on Sunday, and much stronger than the language used on Monday, when the officials acknowledged that the reconnaissance reports dated back to the period surrounding the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Among other things, one official disclosed on Tuesday that one intelligence report had pointed to a possible attack "in August or September.''

That shifting tone may prove frustrating to the public, providing little guidance for assessing the gravity of threat information whose details remain shrouded in intelligence reports not available to anyone outside the highest ranks of the government.

A senior White House official who mentioned the new stream of intelligence in an interview refused to say anything more about its source or content. The official said it had not been publicly disclosed out of concern that such a step could compromise intelligence and law enforcement operations in the United States and around the world. Officials would not describe those operations but said they were meant to disrupt a possible plot.

But senior federal intelligence and law enforcement officials also described the intelligence as important. They said it had reached the White House last Friday and strongly reinforced the sense of alarm prompted by the separate flow of information that was arriving at the same time via the Central Intelligence Agency from Pakistan and that was based on information culled from seized computer disks that contained detailed case reports of reconnaissance conducted on buildings in Manhattan, Newark and Washington in 2000 and 2001.

In providing new details about those case reports, senior government officials described them for the first time as discrete documents, each at least 20 pages long and devoted to a particular target, and perhaps most intriguingly, they said, written in "perfect English.''

The author of the reports was "obviously someone who has lived an extensive period of time in the West, exceptionally professional, exceptionally meticulous,'' a senior intelligence official said in a telephone interview. "Anyone who thinks that these terrorists are a bunch of ne'er-do-wells, if 9/11 didn't convince them, these case reports would convince them.''

Though the case reports do appear to have been completed before the Sept. 11 attacks, as Bush administration officials first acknowledged on Monday, some of the computer files appear to have been updated or accessed more recently. One was a file modified in January and including a photograph of a building, a senior White House official said. The official also said there was reason to believe that people associated with Al Qaeda who are still at large would have had access to the reports.

The officials would not identify the building that appears in the recently modified file, except to say that it was not one of the five that have been named. Those five are the New York Stock Exchange and the Citigroup Center in Manhattan, the Prudential building in Newark and the headquarters of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington.

The officials also acknowledged that they had not been able to assess the significance of the fact that the computer file had been modified. Such a modification could have meant that the file was updated with newly taken surveillance photographs but might simply have meant that the file had recently been opened and closed.

The White House officials spoke in a lengthy interview arranged at the request of The New York Times in which they offered a detailed accounting of the decision-making that led to the terrorist alert.

The computer disks on which the case reports were found were linked to Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a 25-year-old Pakistani computer engineer who was arrested by Pakistani authorities on July 13, American officials have confirmed. The officials have described Mr. Khan's arrest, carried out at the request of the C.I.A. , as having provided the crucial breakthrough in the case, leading them not only to the case reports but also to information about other Qaeda officials still at large who appear to have had access to the documents.

Mr. Khan has been described as having cooperated with Pakistani and American interrogators, and some American officials said that the information he himself provided, as distinct from the computer records, may also have pointed to the prospect of a current threat of terrorism in New York and Washington.

A senior official from the Department of Homeland Security was among those who sought to emphasize that the computer files containing the case reports were not the only new source of intelligence being reviewed at senior levels of the administration in the hours before the alert was made public.

"All the information wasn't from one source; there was new information that was introduced late Friday night,'' the official said.

For weeks, senior intelligence officials have said that multiple streams of intelligence, including information provided from intercepted communications, interrogations of Qaeda prisoners and foreign intelligence services, had pointed to the increasing possibility of a major terrorist attack in the United States this year, most likely before the Nov. 2 election.

But the government officials said the intelligence reviewed only late last week was more significant in pointing to financial targets in New York and possibly Washington.

link

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The data on the 9/11 attack would have been five years old as that's how long the attack had been planned.

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We're through the Looking Glass now.

Tom Ridge issues a dire Security Threat (dare I use the word 'imminent'?) and it SO SEVERE that Laura Bush is dispatched to Ground Zero of the Threat Alert, Citicorp's headquarters in Manhattan.

What is the First Lady doing at one of the terrorists' primary targets? Shocked

Why she's campaigning, of course. Rolling Eyes

The three-year-old data -- new of course because it's just been announced -- sparking the latest Terra Threat specifically names New York locations, but the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty is re-opened (it's been closed since shortly after 9/11) because it's safe now? Shocked

Don't pass anyone else that Kool-Aid you're swigging, boyz.

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And they wonder how we come to the conclusion that the threats are politically motivated....

Cycloptichorn

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Hmmm.

http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/04/08/ana04014.html

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The threats are real. It really is sad when certain people make fun of the threat we are under. What we do overseas is directly related to our was on terror at home also. Pakistan has been instumental on fighting the war on terror. We are safer, not completly safe.

Welcome to the Terrorism Research Center, Inc.

Founded in 1996, the Terrorism Research Center, Inc. (TRC) is an independent institute dedicated to the research of terrorism, information warfare and security, critical infrastructure protection, homeland security, and other issues of low-intensity political violence and gray-area phenomena. The TRC represents a new generation of terrorism and security analysis, combining expertise with technology to maximize the scope, depth and impact of our research for practical implementation.

This site is the on-line portal to our terrorism knowledgebase (operating with the domains www.terrorism.com and www.homelandsecurity.com), a dynamic relational database of public domain and proprietary content. Navigate the site by either selecting the area of interest from the navigation bar or by searching for specific keywords.

Current Nationwide Threat Condition: ELEVAT
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Article (Terrorism): Pakistan nets 18 suspects as Al-Qaeda hunt moves east to cities
An intensive swoop by Pakistan on Al-Qaeda cells in the country's east has netted at least 18 suspects including four African operatives and a computer mastermind, a senior security official told AFP. The latest crackdown has taken Pakistan's Al-Qaeda hunters far from the terror network's traditional sanctuaries in rugged northwest tribal lands bordering Afghanistan to the dense eastern cities and towns of Punjab, its most populous province. The captures have also netted "valuable information" from computer records, CDs, emails, detailed maps of Islamabad airport, documents and photos of key financial institutions in New York, Washington and Newark. The information included plans to attack tourist sites in the South African city of Johannesburg, according to the security official, who is closely involved in the crackdown and interrogation of detainees. Full Story

Posted by: kirkhope on Tuesday, August 03, 2004 - 11:56 PM EST

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U.S. authorities have launched a broad search for terrorist operatives who might have helped conduct surveillance of the five financial institutions in New York City, Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C., that were the focus of Sunday's terrorism alert, two federal law enforcement officials said Monday. The search reflects a sobering conclusion that U.S. investigators reached after reviewing detailed reconnaissance reports seized last month from an al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan: It's unclear whether the operatives who did the surveillance of the U.S. financial institutions are still in this country preparing for attacks. The officials, who are familiar with U.S. counterterrorism efforts, said the search will be a huge undertaking for investigators. It will include reviews of employee rosters of Citigroup, the New York Stock Exchange, Prudential, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Full Story

Posted by: kirkhope on Tuesday, August 03, 2004 - 11:52 PM EST
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Security forces launched a huge crackdown in Pakistan yesterday after a group claiming links with al-Qa'ida said it had staged Friday's failed assassination attempt on the prime minister-designate, Shaukat Aziz. There are growing fears that the suicide bombing may be the start of a full-scale al-Qa'ida campaign against General Pervez Musharraf's regime. The information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said several people had been arrested over the assassination attempt that left at least five people dead, including Mr Aziz's driver. But in a sign of how few clues the authorities have, there were reports that a tailor from the nearby town of Attock had been detained because the suicide bomber's remains included tattered strips of clothing with a label from his shop.Full Story

Posted by: ethrush on Tuesday, August 03, 2004 - 11:46 PM EST
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Pakistani authorities have arrested several al-Qaida suspects in recent days, believed to be linked to others in custody who provided intelligence leading to the arrest of a key fugitive and Washington's issuing a terror attack warning, officials said Tuesday. Among those arrested was Raja Waqar, a policeman assigned to the office of Punjab province's top politician. Waqar is suspected of informing al-Qaida-linked groups about the whereabouts of top government officials, a high-ranking intelligence official in the eastern city of Lahore told The Associated Press. Another detainee identified himself as Juma Ibrahim, a Syrian. He was arrested Sunday at a bus station in Hafizabad, a town near Lahore, and was turned over to Pakistan's spy agency, said district police chief Aslam Ghauri.Full Story

Posted by: ethrush on Tuesday, August 03, 2004 - 11:41 PM EST

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My man Fitz

http://www.azstarnet.com/ss/2004/08/04/32678.gif

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Xena - I don't believe we are beliitleing or making fun of the terrorist threats themselves. We know they are real. Otherwise, 75% of us at this point wouldn't be saying that we do not feel any safer than we did following 9/11.

The problem is with the timing, the info from pakistan that they were being pressured to deliver during the Democratic convention, that the info was had for a couple of weeks prior to the release to the public and that Laura was sent to one of the targets the day after the threat alert was issued... Just to mention a few of the things that has to make one wonder why such important information regarding our very lives would be deemed appropriate for political manipulation.

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A Clockwork Orange Alert?
The timing of the arrests in Pakistan and the alerts in the United States continue to raise questions about the politics of terror

Quote:

The timing's a little strange, no question about that, and, yes, maybe a little embarrassing for those of us who like to shoot holes in conspiracy theories. Last week I wrote a skeptical column called "October Surprises," dismissing out of hand the notion among Bush-haters that the president or his men have an already-captured Osama bin Laden squirreled away some place so they can pop him on the public at a vote-grabbing moment just before the U.S. presidential election. "Give me a break," I said.

Then, well, something kind of like that happened. No, it's not OBL. And no, it's not October yet. But last week right at the end of the Democratic National Convention?-at just that moment when John Kerry was supposed to be getting a huge boost from the undivided attention of the media and the American people Bingo! News broke that Pakistan caught one of Al Qaeda's Most Wanted. Actually, you've probably never heard of him: a Tanzanian named Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani (a.k.a. "Foopie") who allegedly helped blow up the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es-Salaam six years ago this month. But still, the timing of the announcement was an uncanny surprise.

Further fouling the conspiratorial air was an article that appeared earlier in July in The New Republic, reporting that the Bush administration was putting all sorts of pressure on the Pakistanis to do just this: nab high-profile members of Al Qaeda before November or during the Democratic convention. An official in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was quoted saying "the last 10 days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by [U.S. official] visitors to Islamabad."

"There's Nothing Patriotic About Ignorance"

The American public didn't pay much attention?-at first. The Tyndall Report, which tracks U.S. network news coverage, doesn't even mention the Ghailani arrest in the stats for last week, which show the nets' evening news programs devoted 135 minutes to the convention and the Kerry campaign, and only 16 to any issues dealing with foreign policy.

Current Column | Archives
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Conspiracy theories aside, the weeks before the American election are likely to be very dangerous in Iraq.
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But more headlines followed. Files found on computers used by Ghailani and another supposed Qaeda operative show the group had cased financial centers in New York and D.C. very carefully. When that news hit Homeland Security, alarm bells went off. Never mind that much of the information was years old. So here we are, less than a week since the Democrats' days in the sun, and the only glow left on American TV screens is an Orange alert.

Is the Bush administration playing such cynical politics with our fears? Perhaps. But before we point that finger, maybe we should take a closer look at the Pakistanis. They've had an uncanny way of producing senior Al Qaeda figures when they've felt the heat from the United States, and seeming to miss them right in their midst when the pressure was lowered. The Bush administration may or may not have been telling the ISI it wanted a July surprise, or an October one. But it has plenty of good reasons to turn the screws on the government of President Pervez Musharraf all the time, and in every way it can.

full report Newsweek

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The U.S. and Pakistan are certainly strange bedfellows. We do need them despite the fact that it's obvious what games they are playing. But we need many other countries to stand with us. It's not happening with the Bush Administration who has successfully alienated many more friends while flirting with alleged enemies. The agreement with North Korea being negotiated re atomic weaponry, for instance, is suspiciously similar to the agreement the Clinton Administration had with that troublesome country.

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A little piece I saw today via Metafilter:

http://juliusblog.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_juliusblog_archive.html#109156476570482138

Quote:

Timeline of Terror Alerts

Biltud, from Salon.com's TableTalk, posted a few days ago a series of correlations between past terror alerts and political events unfavorable to the Bush administration. I compiled all these correlations and organized them chronologically into a timeline. I also added additional news items and other instances that I found out, detailing the terror alerts over the last few years, and located the original sources for many of these news articles. Soon, Biltud and I started to research together all these occurrences, and more interesting "coincidences" started to appear. We finally built this timeline of terror alerts and how they relate to the news headlines of the days immediately prior to that very alert. I think it's very easy to see a pattern recurring (Text in blue marks the original notes by Biltud. Text and sources in black are my additions):

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January 10, 2002 - George W. Bush, answering reporters' questions in the Oval Office regarding his close relationship with Ken Lay, head of the controversial Enron, claims that he barely knew him: "I got to know Ken Lay when he was the head of the?-what they call the Governor's Business Council in Texas. He was a supporter of Ann Richards in my run in 1994 [italics Chatterbox's]. And she had named him the head of the Governor's Business Council. And I decided to leave him in place, just for the sake of continuity. And that's when I first got to know Ken. " Source

Many see Bush's answer as less than sincere. Source - Source

February 5, 2002 - Angry lawmakers to subpoena Ken Lay over Enron scandal. Journalists inquire about Lay's close connections to the Bush administration Source

February 12, 2002 - Attorney General John Ashcroft on Tuesday called on "all Americans to be on the highest state of alert" after an FBI warning of a possible imminent terrorist attack. Source

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May 22, 2002 -- Bush goes on the record as opposing the formation of an independent commission to look into why 9/11 happened.

Mr. Bush's comments come after a two-day hearing on Capitol Hill with FBI director Robert Mueller and the agent who wrote the so-called "Phoenix memo" last summer warning about that Arab students training at U.S. aviation schools were linked to a militant Muslim group. Source - Source

Same day:

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee votes to issue subpoenas to the Bush administration for information on its contacts with bankrupt energy trader Enron Corp. Source

May 24, 2002 - Railroad and other transit systems across the country received a Transportation Department warning based on "an unconfirmed, uncorroborated report", and were told to "remain in a heightened state of alert". Earlier this week, the government issued warnings about the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge, leading to tightened security at an around those New York City locations. Source

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September 20, 2002 -- In the wake of damaging Congressional 9/11 inquiry revelations, President Bush reverses course and backs efforts by many lawmakers to form an independent commission to conduct a broader investigation than the current Congressional inquiry.

The White House also refuses to turn over documents showing what Bush knew before 9/11.

September 20, 2002 -- Relatives of 9/11 victims grill the Bush Administration over their reluctance to get to the bottom of it. Source

September 21, 2002 -- The Pentagon completes and delivers to President Bush a highly detailed set of military options for attacking Iraq, said the New York Times, quoting Pentagon and White House officials on Saturday.

The president has options now, and he has not made any decisions," states Ari Fleischer. Source

September 23, 2002 -- Former Vice President Al Gore warns that President Bush's doctrine allowing for a "pre-emptive" strike against Iraq could create a global "reign of fear." Source

September 23, 2002 -- Victory for German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his ruling coalition came after a campaign in which he emphasized his strong opposition to a US war with Iraq. Source

September 24, 2002 - Based on a review of intelligence and an assessment of threats by the intelligence community, as well as the passing of the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the disruption of potential terrorist operations in the United States and abroad, the Attorney General in consultation with the Homeland Security Council has made the decision to return the threat level to an elevated risk of terrorist attack, or "yellow" level. Source

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February 6, 2003 -- Powell pleads with the UN Security Council for a first strike against Iraq. Source

February 9, 2003 - Citing credible threats that al Qaeda might be planning attacks on American targets, the U.S. government raised the national color-coded threat level Friday to orange, indicating a "high" risk of a terrorist attack. Source

Note: In what has become since an object of jokes and derision, the Department of Homeland Security urged citizens to stock up on plastic sheets and duct tape "in case of a chemical attack." Source

Note 2: Also keep in mind that they raised the alert level quickly after numerous anti-war organizations declared their intention to march against the plans to invade Iraq. In New York city, where nearly one million citizens voiced their opposition to the war plans, the level was placed in heightened orange alert just on time for the massive demonstrations of February 15, 2003. Source - Source -

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May 12, 2003 -- Jay Garner, the retired lieutenant general who was the top civil administrator in Iraq, left his post and other senior officials were also replaced. Source

May 20, 2003 - The United States raises the nation's terror threat level Tuesday, saying the U.S. intelligence community believes al Qaeda has entered an "operational period worldwide" and might attack within the US. Source

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July 25, 2003 -- After the Bush administration delayed its publication for months, Congress releases its 9/11 findings. The government also deletes 28 pages of the report believed to detail Saudi funding of members of Al Qaeda in the Untied States prior to Sept. 11. Source - Source

July 28, 2003 -- US troops charged with beating Iraqi POWs. Source

Same day - 15 US soldiers die over 8 days in Iraq. Source

July 29 - Department of Homeland Security issues a warning about the possibility of suicide attacks on airplanes. Source

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August 18, 2003 -- President Bush admits that major combat operations are continuing in Iraq. On May 1, Bush went on national TV to proclaim the end "major combat operations." Source

September 4, 2003 -- Both The New York Times and Vanity Fair start investigating the very damaging allegations that Top White House officials personally approved the evacuation of dozens of influential Saudis, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, from the United States in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when most flights were still grounded, a former White House adviser said today. Source

September 5, 2003 - A Department of Homeland Security advisory warns that al Qaeda is working on plans to hijack airliners flying between international points that pass near or over the continental United States. Source

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December 18, 2003 -- 9/11 Chair Thomas Kean says the attacks were preventable. Source

Dec. 19 2003 -- A federal appeals court ruled the government can not detain U.S. citizen Jose Padilla indefinitely without pressing charges against him or allowing him access to the courts. Source

Same day -- The Wall Street Journal reports that auditors at the Pentagon are accusing Halliburton of refusing to hand over internal documents related to allegations that the oil service company overcharged the U.S. government in Iraq. Source

Same day -- David Kay quits, having found no WMDs. Source

Dec. 21, 2003 - Ridge raises the terror threat level just in time for the holidays. Source

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February 6, 2004 -- CIA Director George Tenet Thursday said Iraq never posed an imminent threat to the United States. Source

February 7, 2004 - Tom Ridge raises the terror alert. Source - Source

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March 15, 2004 -- Military families organize together to oppose the war. Source

March 16, 2004 -- Dems call for probe on Medicare cost cover-up. Source

March 17, 2004 -- Condoleeza opts of 9/11 Commission hearings. She repeats her refusal several times during the week, and later on appears on "60 Minutes" to explain her position. Source

March 17, 2004 - Tom Ridge raises threat level to elevated. Source

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March 21, 2004 -- Richard Clarke gives an exclusive to 60 Minutes about his book "Against All Enemies" just days before he is due to testify before the 9/11 Commission.

"In the aftermath of Sept. 11, President Bush ordered his then top anti-terrorism adviser to look for a link between Iraq and the attacks, despite being told there didn't seem to be one. The charge comes from the adviser, Richard Clarke, in an exclusive interview on 60 Minutes." Source

March 30, 2004 -- Rice continues to refuse to testify publicly in front of 9/11 Commission. Source

April 1, 2004 -- US contractors killed and mutilated in Iraq. Source

Same Day - The Pentagon issues a report that medical evacuations in Iraq hit 18,000. Source

Same day. Bush refuses to release Clinton papers to 9/11 Commission. Source

Also same day, Richard Clarke is all over the news. Source

April 2, 2004 - A bulletin sent from the FBI & Homeland Security warn of terrorists that may try to bomb buses and rail lines in major U.S. cities this summer. Source

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May 18, 2004 -- Colin Powell tells Meet the Press that he was deliberately mislead about WMD information. Powell's aide tries to cut him off mid-air. Source

May 18, 2004 - Former Abu Ghraib Intel Staffer Says Army Concealed Involvement in Abu Ghraib Abuse Scandal. Source

May 19, 2004 -- Newsweek reports that President Bush's top lawyer warned two years ago that Bush could be prosecuted for war crimes as a result of how his administration was fighting the war on terror. Source

Same day - White House stonewalls UN on papers about Halliburton's contracts in Iraq. Source

Same day - Tom Ridge testifies before 9/11 Commission on this second day of hearings in NYC. Source

Same day - The 9/11 Commission begins another round of hearings in NYC. Source

May 19, 2004 -- Nothing but bad news about prisoner abuse in Iraq, including breaking news that the Pentagon was told about the abuses back in November. Source

Senate Armed Forces Committee holds hearings on Abu Ghraib abuses. Source

May 20, 2004 - United States goes on Orange Alert. Source

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June 7, 2004 -- The Wall Street Journal publishes exclusive report demonstrating that the Pentagon provided legal rationales and loopholes in 2003 to use torture and methods of near-torture, and how to avoid various international treaties and US laws. Furthermore, the leaked memos suggest that they circumvent US and international laws, the US president should change the rules as they may see fit. All media outlets pick up on this explosive report. Source - Source

June 14, 2004 - VP Dick Cheney is caught lying about the alleged ties of Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda. Cheney is unable to provide any evidence to his assertions after journalists inquire. On June 15 Bush Bush defends Cheney's unsourced assertions but does not provide any evidence either that there was a "link" between Iraq and al Qaeda or the 9/11 attacks. Source

June 15, 2004 - The Justice Department announces to the press they have thwarted an imminent terror plot to bomb malls in Ohio. Somali immigrant arrested and charged on the case.Source

Later on it is revealed that the Somali immigrant had been arrested one year earlier for his connections to terrorism, but there was nothing "imminent" in that case. The suspect was arrested in Nov. 28, 2003, and the Court papers filed by the government allege that a plot dated to March 2000. His indictment wasn't announced until June 15, 2004. Source - Source

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July 6, 2004 -- Kerry names Edwards as his running mate. Source

July 8, 2004 - Tom Ridge holds a press conference on terror alerts over the summer and during the conventions. Source

July 11, 2004 -- Senior White House officials discuss the possibility of delaying the elections in case of a terrorist attack. Source

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July 22, 2004 -- The 9/11 Commission releases their findings. While many criticize the commission for not going far enough, their report includes many examples of inaction and lack of leadership from the Bush administration. Source

July 26-29 -- Democratic Convention shows party unity and strong leadership. Kerry/Edwards provide electrifying acceptance speeches. John Kerry's acceptance speech is praised even by some conservative analysts. Campaign appearances immediately following the convention draw larger-than-expected crowds.

August 1, 2004 -- White House Projects Highest Deficit Ever. Source

August 2, 2004 - The Department of Homeland Security raises the terror alert at several large financial institutions in the New York City and Washington areas. Source

Later it is revealed that much of the information that led the authorities to raise the terror alert was three or four years old. Source

Can you connect the dots?

It certainly seems to follow a pattern to me....

Cycloptichorn

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Geez! When you look at like that it almost makes it appear as though stuff happens every day of the year!

The dots appear to form the shape of a functioning government. What do they make for you?

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Playing Politics with Terror Alerts

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