|
By Bill Vann
24 December 2003
Excerpt:
Ridge’s justification for the raised threat level at a Monday news conference bordered on the incoherent. Asked to square the supposedly heightened danger of an attack on the scale of 9/11 with the Bush administration’s claims that it has “decapitated” the Al Qaeda terrorist network, Ridge responded: “But make no mistake about it, the president has said this is—we have to be into this—we are in this for the long term, that in spite of the extraordinary success of the military and the CIA, the cooperation with our allies, the apprehension or death of a lot of the principals and the freezing the assets, this is still an international war, international terrorist cells including Al Qaeda, and the fact that we are picking up information that results in us going to Orange, I think, is a reflection of increased capacity, probably on our side, not necessarily greater ability on theirs.”
Most striking of all is the media’s reaction to the raising of the terrorism alert. Both the broadcast news networks and the major US dailies have marched in lockstep with the administration’s terror scare, treating the change in the color-coded alert system with less critical objectivity than they would a weather forecast.
Press reports have accepted at face value the Bush administration’s claims—entirely unsubstantiated—that the US is facing catastrophic attacks, while engaging in civic boosterism, replete with upbeat reports about Americans confronted with disaster “taking it in their stride” and going about their holiday merriment.
The Washington Post published an editorial Tuesday entitled simply “Orange Alert” that praised Ridge for “doing a much better job of giving details about the nature and source of the threat” than on three previous occasions this year when the Bush administration announced the raising of the threat level. “Mr. Ridge was right to give out as many details as possible,” the editorial continued. “Naming times and places gives law enforcement personnel as well as ordinary people a clearer sense of what they ought to be doing.”
One is tempted to ask: what planet are the Post editors living on? No verifiable information has been given to justify the elevated alert. Indeed, an FBI alert issued on the eve of the Homeland Security announcement declared, “e have no information on the possible operatives, target, timing or method of a possible attack.”
more...
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
