The Return of Al Qaeda; or why I just can't keep worrying anymore. I can't. I have to keep going to Manhattan and I'm just fed up.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
No kidding. Al Qaeda is returning. Were they ever gone, really? "Gut feelings" are telling our leaders we're in for trouble.
A new National Intelligence Estimate presents a sobering analysis of terrorism threats to the United States, concluding that Al Qaeda has reconstituted its core structure along the Pakistani border and may now be a stronger and more resilient organization today than it appeared a year ago, according to three U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the draft document.
Really? Ya mean it? Not kidding me, are ya?
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff underscored the concerns this week when he told the Chicago Tribune that he had a "gut feeling" that the country was entering a new period of increased risk this summer.
Guts! The new way to forecast terrorism! Who knew??!
In the first few years after the September 11 attacks, for example, nervous U.S. officials repeatedly announced warnings of increased risk—in some cases issuing Orange alerts, the second highest level—sometimes based on what turned out to be faulty or exaggerated intelligence reports. U.S. officials are fearful of again being perceived as "crying wolf" or scaring the public—one reason they have for the time being decided not to raise the alert level this summer
So let me get this straight... public perception drives what they do and say. Not whether or not the threats are real, it's what we think about them that dictates what they tell tell us.
At the same time, however, last year’s NIE also warned that Al Qaeda had spawned a jihadi movement that had metastasized, and that radical jihadis were "increasing in both number and geographic dispersion." One cause, the analysis concluded, was the U.S. invasion of Iraq—which intelligence officials said had become a "cause celebre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihaidst movement."
Who would have thought it? Stunned. I'm just stunned. I would have never thought of it. Never. By killing thousands of innocent people in Iraq, we created more terrorists. No shit.
My wife is flying to Chicago tomorrow for 3 days. I'm taking my 11 year old daughter into Manhattan on Friday. And again on Saturday. She's an actress, it's what we do. I can't worry about some asshole's gut feelings. And whether or not they issue a warning. At this point, it's moot.
And I say f- you to gut feelings. F you to government officials too scared by US to tell us the truth about what's happening.