It seems to be a popular meme in the media since the Democratic convention that it’s such a shame that the country is so polarized over the presidential election.
My reaction falls into three main categories:
(1) It’s a presidential election year; in democracies it’s a good thing when people are interested in elections.
(2) The Republicans have been pursuing non-stop hyperpartisanship at least since the 1994 mid-term elections and the Whitewater/Monica hysteria that followed, including the second-only impeachment of a president in US history.
(3) Even things like terror alerts that should be discussed without partisan politics being the primary consideration can’t be, because the Bush administration is letting partisan politics override the real law-enforcement and intelligence efforts to fight terrorism directed against Americans.
The ill-fated terror alert that kicked off the month is yet another example of the latter. It started off looking like a questionable, politically-motivated event. It rapidly developed that it was based on information about pre-9/11 surveillance of buildings, raising further questions about the urgency or even currency of the information.
Then in the course of trying to justify the alert, the administration (apparently in the person of National Security Adviser Condi Rice) blew the cover of an agent inside al-Qaeda, an asset who had been “turned” by the Pakistanis in mid-July. As a result, the British police had to prematurely move on a group of terrorist suspects that they had been monitoring and preparing cases against, on the assumption that once they realized that an operative with whom they had been working was an agent they would disappear or destroy evidence. Now, the cases against them are in jeopardy, and at least five suspects are reported to have evaded capture.
Then we have a series of arrests of supposedly high-value terrorist operatives. Whatever the value of a boostin public confidence from hearing about the ones two weeks ago in Pakistan (and announced the day of John Kerry’s acceptance speech at the Democratic convention) is almost certainly outweighed by the loss of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan as an important intelligence asset in Bin Laden’s organization.
We’ve had arrests in two sting operations that I discussed in a previous post. Their value is questionable, since neither seems to have involved penetration of ongoing terrorist operations. And, for those familiar with the FBI’s COINTELPRO program and various local variations in operations aimed at potential domestic terrorist threat in the 1960s and 1970s, both operations raise questions about to what extent government agents may be acting as provocateurs. As I said in the earlier post, stings are a legitimate law-enforcement tool. But those operations are particularly subject to abuse by ideologues, cops overeager for busts and law-enforcement officials trying to please elected officials.
Now we hear about a new investigation in the 2001 anthrax attack. I’m genuinely glad to hear that there is an ongoing investigation. But the question remains: when is Ashcroft’s Justice Department going to be able to put together a real case? From the information publicly available about the type of anthrax used, it came from US government stores and there is a pretty small population of people who had access to it. Some cult group didn’t just sneak through a window and steal some of the stuff.
And it seems like every couple of days we hear about Pakistan or Saudi Arabia making some terrorist bust, although the journalists reporting on it typically don’t provide much context. Should we be particularly excited to hear that Saudi Arabia has busted terror suspect Faris Ahmed Jamaan al-Showeel al-Zahrani? Or that the United Arab Emirates have busted Qari Saifullah Akhtar? Should I recognize their names? Do the reporters covering it recognize the names?
And Frances Townsend, the White House’s domestic terrorism adviser, said on Face the Nation this weekend that the US Capitol is a target: Capitol Still Al Qaeda Target, Official Says Los Angeles Times 08/09/04.
Intelligence gathered overseas indicates that Al Qaeda still has its sights on the U.S. Capitol, in addition to the five financial institutions in Washington, New York and New Jersey revealed last week, a White House official said Sunday.
The targeting of the Capitol and members of Congress — which had been known previously — came up again "as part of this continuing threat stream" that led officials on Aug. 1 to raise the terror alert, White House domestic security advisor Frances Townsend said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
My first reaction on reading this was, “Well, duh!” It’s not exactly news that the White House and the Capitol are particular potential targets of terrorist attacks.
Here are several links on recent terrorism news, the Khan story in particular:
News sourcesJuly Surprise? New Republic 07/19/04 issue; updated 07/29/04
July Surprised New Republic online 08/05/04
Pakistan Source Under Cover When U.S. Confirmed Name Reuters08/06/04
University drop-out who ran web network Guardian (UK) 08/06/04
Saudi Arabian security forces arrest one of oil kingdom's most wanted terrorists (AP) 08/06/04
U.S. blew cover, says Pakistan Washington Times/UPI [both owned by the Moonies] 08/07/04
The Mole; Tech Genius Outed Fiends New York Post 08/07/04
Al-Qa'ida five slip net after Heathrow plot The Australian 08/07/04
Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer CNN.com 08/08/04
U.K. police get more time with 9 suspects SeattlePI.com 08/08/04
Terror Suspects Deadline Extended for Questioning Scotsman 08/09/04
Outing of spy stuns security experts New Zealand News 08/09/04
U.S. leak 'harms al Qaeda sting' CNN.com 08/09/04
FBI: Terrorists could use helicopters, limos MSNCBC 08/09/04
Bush team defends raising terror alert CNN.com 08/09/04
How the Pakistani double agent was ‘burned’ by the US Daily Times (Pakistan) 08/09/04
US hits back in row over terror leaks Daily Telegraph (UK) 08/09/04
Senator Asks White House to Explain Khan Leak Reuters 08/09/04
UAE extradites wanted militant to Pakistan Deutsche Welle 08/09/04
Significance of Qari Saifullah Akhtar’s arrest Daily Times (Pakistan) 08/09/04
Bin Laden’s Back Channel 08/16/04 issue; accessed 08/09/04
Billmon, Burning Down the House 08/08/04
Christian Science Monitor Terrorism and Security blog, Did US blow cover on Al Qaeda mole? 08/09/04
Mitch Cohen, Incompetence, Thusly 08/07/04
Juan Cole, Did the Bush Administration Burn a Key al-Qaeda Double Agent? 08/07/04
Juan Cole, Bush Outing of Khan and the Faustian Bargain 08/08/04
Juan Cole,CNN on Khan Scandal: Has it Prevented the Capture of Bin Laden? 08/08/04
Juan Cole, Bush Administration outing of Khan Enabled 5 al-Qaeda Cell Members to Escape Capture 08/09/04
Laura Rozen on anthrax investigation 08/06/04
Laura Rozen on anthrax investigation 08/05/04
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