Letter to the editor over the terror alert

[nadinbrzezinski]

And this is how you steal their thunder, put in seeds

_______________

To the Editor,

After listening to the brief by Attorney General Ashcrofft and Chief of the FBI Mueller, I was left with more questions than answers. One would think that one of the lessons of 9.11 was the complete sharing of intelligence on persons of interest by the FBI with the Department of Homeland Security, and the Immigration Service. Yet we learned today that the six people on the wanted list have been on it for over a year, yet they were able to enter our borders with apparent no problem. We also learned that two of them were involved in the African Embassy bombings. Given these details we should be alarmed that they managed to enter the United States. (The seventh is an American Citizen.) This leads to a series of questions?

1.- Did the compartmentalization between services continue?
2.- If so why? Wasn’t this supposed to stop? Wasn’t this one of the lessons of 9.11?
3.- If this Intelligence on People’s of Interest was not shared, who is responsible for this failure?
4.- If an attack indeed occurs during the Summer, should we assume that its origins are in the failure to share this intelligence between agencies which we have been told is now against stated policy at the highest levels of government?
5.- Will our elected leaders finally take responsibility for ANYTHING?

Oh and one final note, these briefs have become an exercise in Chicken Little and many Americans no longer believe them.

Sincerely,

Nadin XXXXXX

[Tarheel_Dem]

1. terrfic letter!

i hope to see more of these. i wish i were more articulate, i'd fire one off to my newspaper, but here in north carolina, i doubt it would see the light of day.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. use this as a model

but send it

I live in freepervile in so Cal and one of my letters has seen the light of day

Another thing, editors keep track of letters coming in.

[cestmoi]

2. YES great letter. My question. Why doesn't the Homeland

Security web-site have the photos of these suspected terrorists?
Doesn't the FBI want to share them?

[central scrutinizer]

4. one more question

was it just a coincidence that this press conference happened on the same day as the new Bush ad criticizing Kerry as being "soft on terror" started airing?

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. No and yes

I listened to it with care... and there were things in it that made me go, this is the real deal... but they were few and far between.

Most of it was the usual crap

Which makes me think some of this is the real deal...

That said, there are other questions that I did not raise in the letter.

1.- Why all their warnings is be on the look out for suspicious people? instead of the more standard, be on the look out for suspicious packages that have been abandoned?

2.- Why are their warnings so general that they could implicate just about anybody, as most of us can be seen as suspicious? (to their credit we had the seven that is when I went... hmmm that is the part of the deal that is serious)

3.- Why have we been repeatedly told to be aware of our surroundings, but not exactly what we are looking for in those surrioundings?

The list of what to look for can be found in any descent civil defense list, (no don't look at DHS), but our boys have yet to release that list to the general public, and are extremely basic pieces of inforation that aply to ALL types of terror.

So yes it was coordinated, but intelligence such as this one (assuming that they do have valid intelligence stream) do allow you to release this within a somewhat broad window. Which allows you to release this at a politically convenient day as well.

[playahata1]

6. Fine job with the letter.

Thanks for sharing.

I don't pay attention to anything those morons say anymore. I refuse to live my life in fear. I do not have the time or the inclination to look over my shoulder 24/7. Screw them. Peace.