In a commencement speech earlier today at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, President Bush "revealed" that "recently declassified documents" have shown that as recently as two years ago, Osama Bin Laden really tried to whup up then Iraqi Al-Qaida chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi into getting busy on setting up a base from which A-Q to attack America.
"Here in America, we are living in the eye of a storm," he said. "All around us, dangerous winds are swirling and these winds could reach our shores at any moment."
When we read accounts of this speech, we learn this "intelligence" actually was first presented in a Homeland Security briefing back in March, 2005. And interestingly enough, the warnings were general and did not spark any "terror alerts."
Keeping in mind that the Bush Administration's "terror warnings" go back to 9/11, The most charitable explanation I could give for such "warnings" are that they are politically timed, as well as the result of cover your ass, worst-case scenarios by a bunch of analysts who are absorbed in the culture of those very worst-case-scenarios.
With Bush's approval ratings tanking, how convenient Bush is trotting this "information" out now. And that to a Coast Guard class who will work for the same Department of Homeland Security that issued this be afraid, be very afraid "analysis."
Three questions:
1. Prior to our invasion of Iraq, weren't these same terrorists Bush is warning us about repressed by Saddam?
2. If we knew that Osama had been trying to stoke up terror back in 2005, why did this Administration minimize the importance of catching him at the time?
3. What does it say about how ungrounded you are if you still buy into this Administation's "be very afraid" messages?
Like I implied in the title of this post, I stopped believing Bush a long time ago. If he said "2+2=4," I'd go, "oh yeah?"