{"id":526,"date":"2005-01-21T22:22:02","date_gmt":"2005-01-22T04:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=526"},"modified":"2005-01-21T22:25:50","modified_gmt":"2005-01-22T04:25:50","slug":"us-safely-passes-latest-terror-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=526","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Safely Passes Latest Terror Milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

So the Olympics and the presidential inauguration went off without dirty bombs or crashed planes. Does that mean we’re safe<\/a>?<\/p>\n

The terror attack that Attorney General John Ashcroft warned of last spring never happened, President Bush’s inauguration marking the last of a series of major events that he considered prime targets.<\/p>\n

U.S. officials and counterterror experts say it’s unclear whether any plots were thwarted, and they warn the relative quiet should not be viewed as evidence terrorists have turned their attention elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Back in May, Ashcroft and other senior administration officials said intelligence channels had picked up persistent indications that the al-Qaida network or its confederates wanted to mount an attack aimed at disrupting the U.S. elections. “A clear and present danger” was how Ashcroft described it.<\/p>\n

Then came a succession of high-profile events, starting with the G-8 summit of leading industrialized countries in June at Sea Island, Ga., and continuing through the Democratic and Republican presidential nominating conventions the following two months. The Olympics occurred amid extraordinary security in Greece in August, followed by the hectic final weeks of the U.S. presidential campaign and the Nov. 2 election itself.<\/p>\n

The final event was Thursday’s inaugural ceremony, parade and festivities, again under unprecedented security. The worst that happened was a minor scuffle between anti-war protesters and police.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Nothing happened.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While all of the events mentioned were certainly high profile, that does not necessarily mean that they were ever thought of as targets by al-Quida. If anything, the terrorists have shown that any regular ol’ day can become high profile. There was a time when Sept. 11 was just another day on the calendar.<\/p>\n

So, was the drumbeat of warnings necessary? Or, was it, as some Democrats claimed, a calculated move by the Bush administration to scare Americans into re-electing a president whose campaign centered on keeping the country safe.<\/p>\n

“All of the intelligence pointed to al-Qaida’s readiness and fervent intent to hit us and hit us hard,” Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said. “We know al-Qaida wants to hit us now. They’ve been unable to because of the vigilance of the American people and the dedication of federal, state and local law enforcement officers.”<\/p>\n

The heightened threat announcements and heavy security at major events are becoming the norm in the aftermath of the 2001 terror attacks. No government agency or private company wants to be blamed for not doing enough to prevent the next terror plot, which still is almost universally expected.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That any Democrats made such a claim about the alerts is simply disgusting, especially knowing that those same Democrats would have sought to make political hay of an attack by arguing that we were not safe under Bush.<\/p>\n

Dale Watson, former counterterror chief at the FBI, said the potential magnitude of an al-Qaida attack requires a full-scale response to every terrorism tip, no matter its source or perceived veracity.<\/p>\n

“Since 9\/11, you can’t afford to say, `Well, this is nuts, we’re not going to do anything about it,'” said Watson, now with the Booz Allen Hamilton consultancy company. “If you don’t do everything you can, you’re setting your head on a block to be chopped off if something happens.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This lack of this edge was the attitude, albeit somewhat understandably pervasive at the time, that allowed the events of 9\/11. Can such an edge be maintained?<\/p>\n

Former FBI deputy director Weldon Kennedy said a danger exists that without an attack people will tire of the incessant warnings and begin to ignore them, and governments and business will begin balking at spending the enormous sums needed for extra security.<\/p>\n

“Now is not the time to cease and desist. Al-Qaida is not going away,” said Kennedy, now with the Guardsmark LLC security firm. “The biggest fear is that we will slip into a mind-set where we ask, ‘Is it really worth it?'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, that is the fear. Yes, they will try again on our homeland, and we will continue to try to thwart them. Can we sustain the effort the vigilance requires as we seek to cut the legs out from beneath the terrorists’ movement abroad? I honestly expect more successful terror on our soil, as we have to be right every time while the Islamist bastards only have to get through once.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So the Olympics and the presidential inauguration went off without dirty bombs or crashed planes. Does that mean we’re safe? The terror attack that Attorney General John Ashcroft warned of last spring never happened, President Bush’s inauguration marking the last of a series of major events that he considered prime targets. U.S. officials and counterterror […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}