Lest you think the Bush administration would overlook any opportunity to use
any event for partisan political gain.
Now if only the Democrats would call him and the Republicans on the fact
that Osama's been forgotten. [Also that 9/11 happened with the Repugs in
power. The FBI agents in the field, prior to 9/11, reporting highly
suspicious activity were told, to their dismay, to forget about it
repeatedly told by superiors.]
MJ
WH Official: "Weeks before September 11th, this is going to play big
Bush seeks political gains from foiled plot
by Olivier KnoxThu Aug 10, 2:53 PM ET
US President George W. Bush seized on a foiled London airline bomb plot to
hammer unnamed critics he accused of having all but forgotten the September
11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Weighed down by the unpopular war in Iraq, Bush and his aides have tried to
shift the national political debate from that conflict to the broader and
more popular global war on terrorism ahead of November 7 congressional
elections.
The London conspiracy is "a stark reminder that this nation is at war with
Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love
freedom, to hurt our nation," the president said on a day trip to Wisconsin.
"It is a mistake to believe there is no threat to the United States of
America," he said. "We've taken a lot of measures to protect the American
people. But obviously we still aren't completely safe."
His remarks came a day after the White House orchestrated an exceptionally
aggressive campaign to tar opposition Democrats as weak on terrorism,
knowing what Democrats didn't: News of the plot could soon break.
Vice President Dick Cheney and White House spokesman Tony Snow had argued
that Democrats wanted to raise what Snow called "a white flag in the war on
terror," citing as evidence the defeat of a three-term Democratic senator
who backed the Iraq war in his effort to win renomination.
But Bush aides on Thursday fought the notion that they had exploited their
knowledge of the coming British raid to hit Democrats, saying the trigger
had been the defeat of Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut by
an anti-war political novice.
"The comments were purely and simply a reaction" to Democratic voters who
"removed a pro-defense Senator and sent the message that the party would not
tolerate candidates with such views," said Snow.
The public relations offensive "was not done in anticipation. It was not
said with the knowledge that this was coming," the spokesman said.
Snow said Bush first learned in detail about the plot on Friday, and
received two detailed briefings on it on Saturday and Sunday, as well as had
two conversations about it with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
But a senior White House official said that the British government had not
launched its raid until well after Cheney held a highly unusual conference
call with reporters to attack the Democrats as weak against terrorism.
An aide to Lieberman, who would have been one of the first Democrats to hear
of the plot because he is the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security
Committee, said the lawmaker first heard of it late Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Cheney had suggested that Democrats believe "that somehow we
can retreat behind our oceans and not be actively engaged in this conflict
and be safe here at home, which clearly we know we won't, we can't, be," he
said.
While some Democrats have opposed some steps in the war on terrorism, and
more and more are calling for a withdrawal from Iraq, no major figures in
the party have called for a wholesale retreat in the broader conflict.
But Bush's Republicans hoped the raid would yield political gains.
"I'd rather be talking about this than all of the other things that Congress
hasn't done well," one Republican congressional aide told AFP on condition
of anonymity because of possible reprisals.
"Weeks before September 11th, this is going to play big," said another White
House official, who also spoke on condition of not being named, adding that
some Democratic candidates won't "look as appealing" under the
circumstances.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse . All rights reserved. The information
contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten
or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France
Presse.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. And:
Plot was under investigation for a few months...The American media will most
likely not say this...fear...fear...fear...gotta keep people afraid!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-6006659,00.html
Details of the plot only emerged for the first time in the early hours. But
police later revealed the arrests followed an "unprecedented level of
surveillance" - stretching back to December last year - involving meetings,
movements, travel, spending and the "aspirations of a large group of
people".
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