Jonathan Marcus (BBC): A very real terrorist threat

[Jack Rabbit]

From the BBC Online
Dated Monday August 2

Analysis: A very real threat
By Jonathan Marcus

Inevitably the Iraq War has given intelligence a very bad name and so it is easy to see why each new alert draws a fair measure of cynicism.
Some have even seen a political motive behind the raising of the alert status on Sunday - an attempt to draw attention away from the Democratic presidential contender, Senator John Kerry, who is basking in the media spotlight in the wake of his Party's convention in Boston.
But this security alert is unlike any other that has been announced in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
It rests, so we are told, on highly detailed information from a number of sources.

Mr. Marcus' lead paragraph is only slightly misleading. The reason intelligence has a bad name is that the Bush junta has politicized both the intelligence that is gathered and the war which it supposedly serves.

How many times has the junta cried "wolf"? How many times were no details given as to the basis of a heightened terrorist alert? How many times did it follow bad news for the junta? The answer to all three questions: Way too often.

If one recalls one's Aesop, then one remembers that the shepherd who enjoyed a practical joke came to a bad end. What Aesop didn't mention, because he probably thought it went without saying, is that part of the unlamented shepherd's flock no doubt also came to a bad end.

Today, there is a threat and several people beyond the junta are suggesting that this one should be taken seriously. Perhaps they are right, but it is so hard to take another heightened terror alert at face value after so many have been nothing more than a device to frighten the public into getting in line behind an unworthy shepherd.

The villagers in Aesop's fable would have done well to relieve the unreliable shepherd of his duty and see if a more honest lad, less given to practical jokes, could be found to take his place. That is exactly what the people of the American village ought to do.