Hey, remember the guy who planned the attack on the World Trade Center, and orchestrated a great many other acts of terrorism around the world? Well, not only is he still out there, but we’ve just made it harder to catch him because we needed to feed our propaganda machine:
A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release…A copy posted around 3 p.m. on Fox News’s Web site referred to SITE and included page markers identical to those used by the group. “This confirms that the U.S. government was responsible for the leak of this document.”
Predictably, the White House’s reaction is, “Who, us? Leak?”
This is really unconscionable, but not at all surprising. This administration has made it clear from day one that all their bleatings about national security were totally empty. They ignored warnings about 9/11. They used 9/11 to prop up a preemptive war of self-interest that has, without question, made us less safe. They under-funded the cities who needed counter-terrorism funds the most. They alienated our allies. And now they’re willing to compromise catching the big kahuna of terrorism if it means that they can keep us in a state of perpetual fear.
It’s truly shameful. And I can’t wait to hear the right-wing defenses — which I’m sure are coming right after they change their rubber sheets.