July 17, 2004 [LINK]
Will Al Qaeda disrupt elections?
Last week Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge warned that Al Qaeda may be planning to launch a major attack aimed at disrupting the November elections. Given their success in Spain, that certainly wouldn't be a surprise. Nevertheless, according to the Washington Post, Rep. Jim Turner (D-Tex.) said he doubts such a thing is likely. Frankly, expressing any opinion on this delicate question runs big risks, of either the "chicken little" or the "head in the sand" variety.
The former risk may be why we haven't heard about the extremely spooky incident aboard a U.S. airliner in late June, as reported by Annie Jacobsen in womenswallstreet.com. She noticed a group of a dozen Middle Eastern men (who turned out to be musicians from Syria) repeatedly opening carry-on luggage and using the lavatory, in careful sequence, as if they were rehearsing a hijacking. Since no major news organizations have reported on this yet, it may be just a hoax. Even if it was not a dry run for another 9/11-style attack, it could have been part of a long-term campaign to intimidate or unnerve us, or to probe airport security screeners who have been wary of singling out Arab-appearing people. One preliminary lesson to draw is that those who make political hay out of denouncing the U.S. government for curtailing civil liberties may be doing us grave harm. Another is that this country needs to move beyond the civil rights sensibilities of the 1960s and recognize that in some situations there is a place for discrimination. Let common sense prevail.
Here's a good one: restorehonesty.com, a Web site featuring pious ponderings by former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, sponsored by John Kerry's campaign. In light of recent revelations (barely noted in the mainstream press) that Wilson not only lied about the African uranium connection but did grave damage to U.S. foreign policy, I'm wagering that that Web site will be gone and conveniently forgotten very soon.