Tongue Tyed: I Hope This Isn't True

Oct 14, 2005

I Hope This Isn't True

Keith Olbermann has seen 13 "coincidences" of terror alerts being "used" to cover a political downturn for the administration. Even he clearly says these instances may be just coincidence, but it's worth noting. And it is also worth noting his quote from Tom Ridge:

Mr. Ridge said: “More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it. Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don’t necessarily put the country on (alert)… there were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said ‘for that?’”

Spin is one thing, but fear propoganda is a completely different situation.

(Found through Kottke.)

posted by Ty @ 10/14/2005

2 Comments:

At 1:40 PM, October 14, 2005, Dylan said...: This came out a lot during the election too.

Even if terror alerts really AREN'T being used for political relief, it's hard not to think it is.

When security on the New York City subways were mysteriously stepped up last week, on the same day that Tom Delay was indicted again, Karl Rove was called before the grand jury again, and Harriet Miers was being blasted by the right, my first instinct was "He's doing it again!"

The next day, the threat was deemed "probably a hoax."

Ya think?

As I said, even if they aren't being used for political purposes, the terror alerts are useless because too many people think they are.
At 6:38 PM, October 14, 2005, Anonymous said...: When the subway alert first happened, your grandma asked me what I thought of it. Without flinching, I told her I didnt believe it, and not because of the coincidence (though now that it has been pointed out, it may have something to it).

My thinking ran like this: The most likely place we would get intelligence info about an impending attack is from a captured militant. We torture the militants we capture, and torture produces unreliable results. Most often the captive will say whatever they think their interrigator wants to hear in order to end their own suffering.

This situation was one of the many negative affects of torture. While the government may now call it "moderate physical pressure", it doesnt change the fact that it rarely produces usable results.

cuz rob

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