Guest blogged by Winter Patriot
Unless you’ve been under a rock for most of the past week, you already know that people have been arrested in Britain and Pakistan recently, in connection with an alleged plot to bomb flights from Britain to the USA. According to reports of the arrests, the alleged terrorists were allegedly planning to take down 10 or 12 airplanes at the same time, and this grand-scale planning allegedly points to al-Qaeda. You may know quite a bit more than this, of course. Or at least you may think you do. But in point of fact, most of us probably know quite a bit less.
This post attempts to dig beneath the surface, to look at various (mainstream and other) accounts of the events and to try to determine the nature, the scope and the scale of the manipulation that has been going on. It may not point us in the direction of greater truth, but perhaps it can help us to find a direction of fewer lies.
Let’s start with a point of order: Chris Floyd, writer of the excellent blog Empire Burlesque, points out one of the most sickening aspects of the coverage these arrests have received:
The Ceremony of Innocence is Drowned
Everywhere, you read that a “bomb plot was thwarted” — not an alleged bomb plot. Everywhere, you read that the plotters (or most of them) have been captured — not the “alleged” plotters. Everywhere, whatever line is being laid down by “intelligence officials” and government poo-bahs is accepted uncritically and megaphoned out to the public. Everywhere the presumption of innocence — one of the bedrock liberties of the “way of life” that we are supposed to be defending — is gleefully tossed aside.
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The presumption of innocence — like the Geneva Conventions — is just another “quaint” relic of a bygone era.
I give Chris a lot of credit for saying this; I think it shows that he and I have been reading somewhat different sources. If we can judge by the presence of the magic word “alleged”, I have found a few — a very few — “honest” mainstream news reports. Most of them have come from our Canadian friends.
Here’s an example from the CBC (with my emphasis):
Juice, aerosols banned on Canadian flights:
The items join the list of things banned from carry-on luggage on airplanes under tighter regulations put in place on Aug. 10 after British police announced that they had foiled an alleged plot to bomb commercial aircraft with explosives smuggled onto planes in hand luggage.
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At least 40 people have been arrested in the alleged bomb plot, including 24 detained in overnight raids on Aug. 9 and 10 in Britain and others in Pakistan.
As Chris Floyd almost said: the stories containing phrases like “alleged bomb plot” are few and far between. But even before I read his post, I had been looking for the exceptions. And that’s probably why I found them. I even found a New York Times article with the word “alleged” in it. And we’ll look at that article in more depth, later.
But at this point I want to emphasize how prominently these reports stand out — because of their honest use of the language, because they imply that the presumption of innocence is not entirely lost, and because they are so few in number.
I must say this highlights the pathetic condition of the majority our so-called “news” services. And I can’t say I’m surprised.
I was also not surprised to see a wide variety of articles questioning the timing of the arrests; some of which appeared more or less immediately after the first arrests were announced.
In a post I wrote last Thursday, I pointed out how convenient the timing was for the Republicans — who were so busy bashing the Democrats because their favorite faux-Democrat Senator, Joe Lieberman, had lost Tuesday’s Connecticut primary to Ned Lamont.
As usual, and possibly because I am almost always nearly frozen, my piece, An Avalanche of Bullshit, may have been too subtle about it (other than the title, perhaps). Some other writers were mincing their words a lot less than I was that day.
Larisa Alexandrovna of Raw Story, writing at Huffington Post, got my attention by her use of the magic word, and kept it for a long, long time:
Playing Politics with Our Lives
But what kept nagging at me was the sense that the White House was far too eager to exploit this, that despite having only learned of the details a few days back, they appeared to be aggressively using insider intelligence of forthcoming events to their own political advantage.
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The one issue, the key issue for everyone I spoke with, mirrored my own concerns. The timing seemed terribly odd.
The arrests appeared sloppy. Scotland Yard was still involved in raiding and arresting suspects at the time the story broke, and the raids and arrests continued throughout the day and evening. The mastermind was still in Pakistan, when one would have hoped that authorities would have ensured his capture prior to the raids, as such a person could provide information about higher ups and financial backers. Why did the Brits suddenly move? This was the question that had experts completely confused.
Were the experts really “completely confused”? Or were they keeping something hidden?
If they were trying to keep it hidden, it didn’t work. Larisa is a very good chess player.
Right. Exactly. Yes?
Larisa goes on to lay out a series of quotes and links that I find most convincing. I’ve been reading Larisa for a long time and it seems to me that she does not like to stick her neck out. She’s usually entirely convinced of something before she even begins to write about it.
So when she writes stuff like this I tend to pay attention:
In my opinion it was despite the Bush administration that the Brits managed to still secure the alleged plotters, not as a result of White House help in the matter.
The confusion around and skepticism of the alleged London bombings plot is understandable given the context of this week’s events and the well documented past naked abuse of power by this administration in peddling fear for political points.
The mainstream media, however, cannot seem to separate two very specific issues: the actual London plot and the White House abuse of classified information to achieve political goals.
After an extended discussion, tracing the flow of information, Larisa writes:
While all of this chatter is going on in the States, the Brits must have watched with horror. In my opinion, their move to arrest the suspects on Thursday was more about a sleazy White House political machine and the possibility that loose lips from the White House could jeopardize the investigation, which was nearing its end.
This again, is my own opinion. Is this cynical? Yes. But look who we are talking about after all.
Good point. I, like Chris Floyd, value the presumption of innocence very highly. But I don’t see how it can apply to people who have long track records of breaking every law that cuts across their plans, and lying about virtually everything.
Yes, Larisa! That’s exactly the point, isn’t it? No effort toward national security, which is supposedly the Republicans’ best issue. How could this possibly make any sense, in the absence of a great propaganda machine?
Larisa then draws what seems like an obvious conclusion:
How is this allowed?
That’s another good question, is it not? Larisa and I might not have much in common — and I’m sure she’s a much better chess player than I am (which is probably why she won’t play me!) — but we do ask a lot of questions, don’t we?
Watch how she asks and answers a question that is usually spun the other way:
No. We were not safe to begin with because this administration failed to do its job in preventing the attacks of that tragedy.
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We are by far even less safe after the White House created torture camps all over the world
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We have become even more unsafe because this administration spent all of our national security funding, that is, funding earmarked for securing our nation, on Halliburton and Blackwater contracts, and on building a big, palace like base in Iraq.
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We have been at near zero safety since Bush and Cheney were appointed to their positions in 2000 and we will continue to have our safety downgraded with every passing second that this cabal has control over our precious, soon to be extinguished democracy. They are not strong on national security. They are strong on propaganda.
Bam! That’s it, isn’t it? Their one strong suit is propaganda! And Larisa nails them on it with a certain panache, don’t you think?
What an essay! I urge you to read the whole thing. But then I always say that, especially when I’m talking about Larisa.
Earlier in the day, without doing the same research, Buzzflash had come to the same kinds of questions from a slightly different angle:
U.K. Terror Plot Foiled Just a Day after Lieberman’s Defeat. Coincidence?
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While the exact nature of today’s arrests is still unclear, none of the plans seemed to have been immediate or imminent threats. The decision of when to intervene has been arbitrary, making the coincidental timings pretty convenient.
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Imagine a conversation late Tuesday night between Bush and his British Prime Minister lapdog, just as Ned Lamont declares victory. “Yo, Blair,” Bush says while scarfing down a dinner role. “I gotta to do something about this sh*t. Can you finally arrest those suspected terrorists you told me about? This election business is ruining my vacation! I know you’re chillin’ in the Caribbean yourself right now, but it sure would be great if you could make a few calls for me ASAP.”
Don’t buy it? Consider this quote from a Reuters article on the story: “President George W. Bush had known about the investigation for several days, was briefed about it regularly and knew the arrests were coming, a senior administration official said.” Both countries are surely monitoring several terrorist leads that could lead to arrests at any time. The British group would have been stopped eventually, but there has been absolutely no indication why it had to be today.
The Buzzflash editorial winds its way through some thorny ground before coming to the following conclusion:
We will never know, as long as one-party dictatorship prevails and incompetence and unending war are the means of maintaining power.
But timing is something you can document. And this timing of the latest act of terrorism announcement appears more political than operational.
A senatorial candidate who questions the strategic value of the Iraq War is denounced by the top level of the Bush Administration as an appeaser of terrorists — and then once again there is an arrest of people we are told intended to commit grievous acts of terrorism.
There appears to be a pattern here, and it’s one employed by masters of tyranny, not democracy, to cover up for a failed war and a failed foreign policy.
I think you should read this whole piece too.
When I need a different — calmer, clearer — view of things, I try to consult Gwynne Dyer, who can be hard to find. Serious truth-tellers sometimes have difficulty getting published, and their readers sometimes have to make an effort. This time I found Gwynne Dyer in an Australian paper.
Who benefits from security hysteria?
It wasn’t clear what they were supposed to do — crush the terrorists under their treads? — and no actual terrorists ever showed up, but it helped to shape public opinion. So how different is it this time?
Well, that’s the thing, isn’t it?
How is this different?
What should we do about it?
Should we do anything different?
Strangely — tragically — these sorts of questions have been virtually off-limits, for almost five years.
Isn’t it time we started talking about them? Apparently Gwynne Dyer thinks so.
Maybe it’s cynical, but there are strong grounds for suspecting that this is all a charade. If they infiltrated these terrorist cells many months ago and have now have arrested most of the members, then why would they institute drastic new security measures on flights at this point? And did they really only realise in the past few days that explosives come in liquid form as well?
One of the reasons I like Dyer so much is because he can always make me laugh, even in the middle of a very serious piece like this. But I also like him because he gets right to the point.
Fair enough, although this is the same organisation that took “urgent action” to kill an innocent Brazilian called Jean Charles de Menezes in July 2005 “in order to disrupt what we believe was being planned”, and earlier this year shot and wounded another innocent person in London in the course of a raid on a Muslim family in east London based on manifestly unreliable information.
So maybe 24 terrorist plotters have been arrested in Britain, or maybe 24 innocent British Muslims with full beards, or more likely some combination of the two. But whatever the truth of that, why the panic?
Exactly. We got ’em, right? So why were we acting like we didn’t?
Well done, lads — but if you have them all locked up, why are you closing the airports and bringing in all these draconian security measures now? A couple of months ago, when you first uncovered this plot but didn’t know all the “main players”, I could understand such drastic precautions, but why now?
Very interesting twist here, no? Dyer asks “why now?” in a completely different way than Larisa did, for example. And the questions reinforce each other. Why now? Why now? Why now?
It’s a great sytle, isn’t it? Another joke and then — kablam — straight to the heart of the matter:
This is all hype, designed to frighten the British and American publics into supporting the wars of their deeply unpopular governments (and the war of their Israeli ally as well).
What a wonderful phrase: “Even if the alleged British terrorist ring were still on the loose.”
As I’ve been saying, Dyer’s a compulsive truth-teller, and he’s been studying the various war machines for decades.
So his take on the events of last Thursday isn’t very surprising. Worth reading? Sure. Always. Worth sharing? Yes, in my opinion. But not very surprising.
There was a big surprise, however, on Monday morning, and it came from NBC!
British officials knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.
In contrast to previous reports, one senior British official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have passports.
Wow! That’s a good one! I may be nearly frozen, but even I understand how tough it is to get aboard an international flight without a passport. Imminent danger, indeed!
Of course he did. He always does. But apparently not everyone got the memo:
And:
Can you believe it’s NBC saying this? Perhaps there’s some hope for American TV journalism after all.
If you can call it that.
Or maybe I’m just hopeful. Frozen and hopeful, that must be it!
Are you with me so far? Good.
Now let’s take a ride inside the Republican Spin-And-Noise Machine, courtesy of Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times:
In Wake of News, a Plan: Uniting Party and President
Their party was splintered over Mr. Bush’s proposed immigration overhaul and uncertain about the political effect of violence in Iraq. Even with the White House working to bring Republicans together behind the president’s agenda, several candidates were making public shows of establishing their distance from him and his sagging approval ratings.
That picture of Republican disunity eased dramatically this week with the defeat on Tuesday of Senator Joseph I. Lieberman in the Democratic primary in Connecticut and the news on Thursday that Britain had foiled a potentially large-scale terrorist plot.
The White House and Congressional Republicans used those events to unleash a one-two punch, first portraying the Democrats as vacillating when it came to national security, and then using the alleged terror plot to hammer home the continuing threat faced by the United States.
Did you catch that? NYT said “alleged terror plot”. Does that tell us something important? Is this article going to give us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Well, not exactly. But watch this: If you read between the lines, you can see the whole gory plan laid bare — from one end to the other. Strong on propaganda? Larisa sure had that one right!
Rallying around the signature issue. Imagine that.
None of it was accidental, was it? They try to spin it like it was just one of those fortunate coincidences that come along every now and then, just another “trifecta” … But was it really? With all you’ve read so far, is there any question?
That word originated in a White House memorandum by Mr. Bush’s press secretary, Tony Snow, suggesting ways to frame the debate, that was shared with officials, including Ken Mehlman, the Republican chairman, and Karl Rove, the president’s top strategist.
The effort continued with the news of the British intelligence breakthrough, with the message that the plot had highlighted the stakes of a fight that the Democrats, according to Republicans, were not equipped to face.
If the Democrats are supposedly not equipped to face this fight, does it make sense to ask: Why not? Is it because the administration has been confining all the top-level intelligence to a very small circle of “insiders”, while giving everyone else, especially Democrats and the media, lie after lie after lie?
Maybe even despite all that, some Democrats are starting to wake up. Maybe they’ve been emboldened by the result from Connecticut. One can only hope…
“If the Republican Party thinks this is a good political issue for them, they are mistaken,†said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
We don’t hear lines like this often enough.
I think every prominent Democrat should memorize it — and five or six variations on the same theme.
But at the very least, news of the plot helped the White House and the Republican Party achieve something they have struggled to do all year: bring the party forcefully together with the president.
Wow! Think of that! Here were two events that should have fractured the party even further. Watching their favorite faux-Democrat lap-dog defeated, by a candidate they had done their best to smear … and then this terror-plot spin-game, so blatantly obvious that even a frozen blogger couldn’t help but notice it?
How sick can you get? This was helpful to the party? And what does that tell you?
It wasn’t only Democrats making that charge, of course. Lots of other people noticed, too. The White House wasn’t the only player actively using the plot to its political advantage, either. And I doubt Gwynne Dyer is a Democrat.
Well… that’s what they always say. Whenever an accusation is just too spot-on to refute, they call it “absurd”.
Brian Jones is a spokesman for the Republican Party for a reason. He knows what to say when he’s cornered.
The so-called president knows it too but he doesn’t always get it quite right.
Remember when he was confronted about his alleged foreknowledge of 9/11? What did he say then?
“That’s an absurd assinuation.”
But I digress.
What do you expect them to say? That those who were briefed on the plot demanded arrests as soon as they needed another smoke-screen to hide behind?
And why would they say that? Why would they start telling the truth now? They probably don’t even know how to do it anymore, if indeed they ever did.
But every time they deny something, without really refuting it, the non-refutation denial goes halfway to confirming the assertion. And then there’s the between-the-lines thing. Read very carefully, my friends.
Officials said they had identified a Lieberman loss as a potential watershed moment that could reinforce the Democrats’ antiwar message — and scare Republicans out of taking White House advice to embrace the war in Iraq and national security in general. That advice was wearing thin as the death toll in Iraq continued to climb.
No kidding. Not to mention the fact that the country is starting to wake up to certain other inconvenient truths.
Still, last weekend, Republican officials said, as the Lieberman loss seemed a certainty, the Republican National Committee and the White House began working to bring the party together on a message that the Democratic Party was taking a hard turn toward the antiwar left.
As I oh-so-subtly pointed out last week, they could hardly admit that the Democratic voters of Connecticut had made a choice, could they? Oh no, this single electoral result had to be painted as a change of direction for the entire Democratic Party. And why? Because they can get away with any lie they choose to tell? Or because they think we’re all so stupid we can’t tell the difference between Connecticut and the USA?
Right. And we believe this. Even though it makes no sense at all, and even though we know they despise all the great historical Democrats — especially FDR and JFK — whenever they’re not trying to use their names to dupe current Democrats. Sure thing, Mr. Rove. We believe you this time!
And Joe Lieberman is a distinguished public servant. Right. Gotcha, Karl.
It may not be within the NYT‘s jurisdiction to point out how little sense these statements make. Maybe the Times is content — or compelled — to simply lay Republican talking points on the table without comment, and allow you to draw your own conclusions. But in this case the conclusion is not too difficult to draw, is it?
A key swing state? Is this 2004 again?
And really, “Defeatocrats”? Are we reduced to name-calling as a debating tactic now?
They might as well just shout “Your mother wears Army boots” and be done with it.
They might as well start throwing their shoes.
Of course this is more manure than you can lift with a single pitchfork. There are more than two ways to fight terrorism. Only one of them has been tried in the last five years and it clearly isn’t working very well. But then again they have changed the definition of terrorism so many times, it’s hard to know what they mean when they say “terrorism” nowadays. A partially frozen and fully cynical mind might suggest that this was part of the plan.
Furthermore, we still have no idea what led to Sept. 11. We don’t even know what happened on the day, much less what led up to it. Maybe if they ran a decent, open investigation — dropped all the state secrets claims and rescinded all the gag orders — maybe then we might find out some of the history behind it. But at the moment, we simply don’t know. To pretend we do — and to use this pretense to smear political opponents — strikes me as the height of dishonesty. But then again what else is new?
Meanwhile…
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader in the Senate, said in a statement to supporters that it was “disgraceful†that Mr. Cheney’s comments had come after he had been briefed on the British investigation.
Cheney’s comments were disgraceful, regardless of when he learned about the British investigation. But let’s not dwell on that; there’s plenty of spin still to come.
Yet by Thursday afternoon Congressional Republicans had already issued a flood of e-mail messages hailing the breakup of the plot, and crediting the administration’s anti-terror effort.
Oh what a tangled web they weave … and in my view, Jim Rutenberg has done a good job of bringing us through the tangled skein, so far.
The standard denials are printed verbatim, without comment, whether they make sense or not, whether they reflect known realities or not. So it’s not as honest as it seems. But it’s better than nothing. And it did say “alleged”.
Oh yeah, Sure. Right. Spin me another one. We’ve just been reading about how the talking points were disseminated. Why do they keep lying about this? Are we really supposed to believe it?
And why does the New York Times print every lie that comes along? Are we supposed to laugh?
Some of these questions are rhetorical, of course, but others are serious. How do they decide how many lies to include? Do they count the paragraphs? Or do they count the lies? Do we need X lies for every X true assertions? Or is it X false-paragraphs for every X true-paragraphs?
Whatever they count, somebody (Rutenberg?) clearly decided they needed another lie at this point, so now he gives us this one:
Yeah, sure you did, Ron. We believe everything that Dennis Hastert says, and we believe everything that he tells you to go out and say too, Ron. Really. You’re fooling all of us over here. You believe me, Ron, don’t you?
Finally! Here it is: the Republican strategy in a nutshell: Wait until the Democrats criticize the way you’ve been bungling national security, then deliberately bungle yet another national security threat, then turn around and claim that your opponents are soft on national security, weak on defense, friends of al-Qaeda, yada yada yada.
Do you see that? Do you understand how it works?
Spin it counterclockwise for a change and it all makes sense. Finally. Doesn’t it?
We will never again be fooled by manipulations such as this one — Never again, right?
If we shake ourselves out of our artificially-induced terror-stupor, we might just surprise a few Republican talking-point generators.
They’re counting on this one working for quite a while.
It looks to me as if they’ve got it all figured out: As long as we can keep worrying about the “alleged bomb plot” for the next few weeks, we won’t have to worry about anything else until early next month, when we’ll be able to start worrying about Osama bin Laden again for a while. And eventually we won’t know anything about anything, but we’ll all be worried sick. Or standing in long lines at airports. Or not!
The final paragraph shows a master spinner at work, for sure, for sure:
First of all, who is this “senior Republican official”? Could it be the master weaver himself, the spider in the middle of the tangled web? The one Larisa calls a “morally bankrupt, soulless, intellectually perverted campaign manager with the highest security clearances, working out of the seat of power, using government agencies and resources at his disposal”? Well, why not? It sure sounds like him, doesn’t it?
And what does Rutenberg mean when he says “even Republicans acknowledged that the climate was unpredictable”???
To me, that final paragraph should say:
“Republicans, of course, claim the climate is unpredictable. They don’t want us to notice how they manipulate everything, even risking our national security in favor of their own agenda. They don’t want us to see arrests in “alleged terror plots” as being under their “typical political control.”
But they admit these things in other contexts, as you can see — if you pay attention to the true-paragraphs of this article, and if you ignore the false-paragraphs.”
The New York Times would never say that, would they?
I say things like that all the time.
What’s the difference?
Is it because my brain is nearly frozen?
Or is it just because the traitors have never threatened me with treason?
For more on the thwarted alleged British-Pakistani simultaneous airplane bombing plot, see:
An Avalanche Of Bullshit: Republican Attack Dogs Hit Democrats Nationwide Over Lieberman’s Loss In CT Primary
NYT Beats The Terror Drums Again, But Exposes A Vital Fact!
British News Full Of Terror Revelations; World Opinion Appears Skeptical
Goood eye WP.
Chris Matthews (Hardball, MSNBC) had Seymore Hersh on last nite, and he sees the spin machine in full on mode too.
He pulled no punches and sees a massive propaganda effort.
Ron Reagan, son of President Reagan, sees thru the fog of propaganda too:
(link here, bold added).
We should not forget the great advantage that the NSA spying on Americans gives Big Brother. He knows what the democratic insurgency is saying and doing by spying on them.
The lawsuits against Big Brother have been consolidated to Judge Walker:
(link here). With the spying advantage gone, it will be more difficult for Big Brother to do his thing.
Big Brother is a republican.
I would invite you to look at a few other things…
There were some highly publicized arrests in Ohio and Michigan of “suspected terrorists” that occurred in the same time frame. They were undoubtedly designed (by the FBI and Rove) to provide a “USA context” and “local spin” in conjunction with the larger story.
Of course they have since fallen apart (Ref: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs....plate=printart) but they served their purpose at the time.
And, then there is the highly selective leaking. I read a paragraph in USA Today (it was sitting on the table where I was drinking my coffee) yesterday that made me spew and write “TREASON” in the margin for the next person to read. It was all about the arrests in London with lots of the talking points that the government is putting out, and it ended with this line (paraphrasing) “…according to Homeland Security personnel who spoke under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about this matter publicly.”
Somehow, I don’t think the Republican Administration that wants to criminalize whistle blowing and printing of the truth will be following up with a high-profile investigation of Homeland Security to find out who these “leakers” are who are endangering the USA by revealing what they are not authorized to reveal.
We are being VERY well led around by our noses. The New York Times is no less culpable than USA Today or FOX at this point.
Charlie L
Yeah, C&L had a good Olberman piece from yesterday about the coinkydinks between the terror alerts and the news of the day since 2002
(a big file though for the modem users) Link
WP (and others): I have a question about how we should deal with the Main Stream Media (or, as I like to call it, the Corporate Controlled Right Wing Spin-Machine).
Do we give credence and credit to the occasional story by the stray “journalist” (clearly, a dying or dead species) that seems to cover the issues of the day rather than simply stenographizing the Rove-written White House Talking Points? That would be, the occasional Olberman or Chris Dodd, or other? OR, do we maintain our basic attack on the MSM as a whole and work doubly hard to direct people to get their news and information from alternative sources?
I realize that the number of people who get their news and info from internet-only sources such as bradblog, truthout, RawStory, OpEdNews, Freepress.org, consortiumnews, GregPalast, MediaMatters, and such are in the SMALL minority compared to those who still digest the MSM. Dare we write off even those in the MSM who “seem” to be our friends, or at least willing to cover the tough stories?
My instinct tells me that while Dobbs may be good, I would rather not have my daughters watching CNN AT ALL. My instinct tells me that while Olberman is good, they will be worse for watching MSNBC. When the really TOUGH times come, I suspect that these reporters will be quickly “quieted down” and both those outlets will become (once again, as they were before) mere megaphones for the Talking Points.
But, I also understand that as we fight this final battle for our nation’s soul, we can hardly afford to write off ANY source of support that reaches to the many people who are so filled up with lies and fear that even the most “obvious” facts are hard to get into their heads.
I am torn.
Where do others fall on this issue?
Charlie, all you can do is praise “them” when they report the truth and spank “them” when they report the military and Republican psy-ops spin IMO
So far I have not seen any evidence that the alleged terror plot in London is real and I doubt I ever will. Bigger lies have been constructed and the sources are hardly reliable. Who can believe in what terror organisations like MI6, CIA and the Bush/Blair governments say any more?
There have been far too many invented and hugely exaggerated terror cases for me to keep even small shreds of trust in the words of these criminals. When event after event reveals itself as either complete make-believe or as a case of innocent muslims being infiltrated, convinced, coerced and given plans and bombs by government agents there is no reason to assume that this one is any different.
Remember the foiled plot in Canada a few months ago where it was revealed that one of the bomb-plotters was a government agent? A vocal proponent of violent jihad and sharia law, a supposedly fiercely anti-western radical muslim cleric who recruited, incited and trained the plotters in guerilla warfare was working for Canadian intelligence.
Great work, WP. Thank you.
Wow, WP!!
You really go all-out when you get a bee under your thinking cap!!!
BTW, CNN almost always uses the word “alleged” when referring to this plot and its plotters, but I can’t speak for FOX because I’ve never tuned in there.
I had read all these articles and concurred; Amy Goodman’s interview with John Dean today puts it all in context: control the fear, keep it at the max, and you control the world.
Your nearly frozen brain functions just fine. 🙂
I wonder how the neo-cons reacted when Blair told them his current Home Secretary John Reid was a former member of the British Communist Party.
Try http://www.waynemadsenreport.com for a clear set of reports on what’s been going on from the U.K. end of things.
Also, kudos to WP for an in-depth look. I began watching Terror Storm yesterday (available on line) by Alex Jones. I had not realized the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was as severe as it was and that Pres. Johnson was such a complicit bastard. (I mean I knew he was a bastard and all) but did not know so much about the Liberty.
rdw
Winter Patriot – Thank you for putting together this article – I truly appreciate the opportunity to be more informed thanks to your efforts. Keep up the great work!
Great post WP! Did you see that Repugnantican Mehlman on MTP Sunday? How many times did he say “cut and run”? I lost count around 20… So the new catch phrase for them is “adapt and win”… Adapt and win my ass… I don’t think even Republicans are going to buy that one, but their propaganda machine knows no limits. As long as people are buying this crap, we’ve got to keep fighting. I’ll be calling people for Clint Curtis again tonight, and every night til’ November. This country isn’t going to take itself back. Viva revolucion!
WP is David Brock, Jr. Excellent. Remember when we never thought about unspinning the corporate news? Now, we are all educated and good at it. It takes an effort, you have to put time into it. There should be courses in high school about being skeptical of the corporate media, and analyzing the corporate media.
This caught my eye in the coporate media: They use the word “Kidnap”, as Hezbollah “kidnapped” an Israeli soldier. There’s hundreds of Palestinian women and children and men in Israeli jails. Were they “kidnapped”? Since when does one side “kinnap” and the other side “captures”?
Who are the real terrorists,..
Christian Fascist Zionists – rattle the sabers for more
Middle Eastern war. You have heard of the Israeli lobbying group AIPAC,.. that is comparable to the Campfire Girls to this new Christian warmonger group
who has the ear of the White House and the fascist right-wingers.
May Texas televangelist, John Hagee and his new group
Christians United For Israel be formally introduced,..
a convention of Christian Neo-Fascists was recently held to announce this new group.
Video link to Democracy Now – addressing the issue of a new Christian lobbying group “Christians United For Israel” with speeches by
Sen. Sam Brownback R-Kansas and Texas preacher John Hagee.
*********************
Rapture ready Christian Zionist
Texas Preacher John C. Hagee,..
Link 1
Link 2
Spot on writing again, Coldman. Everytime I start to believe I’m becoming a conspiracy nutcase, the cold hard facts slap me in the face.
Yes, we’ve all been watching this administration manipulate the release of confidential info for their own political gains. Time and again we see the timing of these alleged plots coincide with other, less convenient news. Nice work tying it all together for those of us not in the choir.
The depressing thing is no longer that the facts are not getting out, but rather that they are out and no one has put the breaks on this administration. Even the best case scenario–Landslide win for dems and immediate impeachment of Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Rice, et al.–would not stop this madness until January.
I’m not discouraged, I just wish that George Washington had put a trapdoor in the Oval Office.
Good job. Had a long conversation last night concerning this exact subject with a dear friend Hard as I tried I probably did not convince him to use a large BS filter when reading or listening to any TERROR news. I forwarded this article and thread to him recently with the message, If you value Democracy Read this and all associated links and don’t call back until you do. Tough stance to take with a friend but the time for a soft approach is long past. The stakes are to high to F&*k around. Hope he reads with a critical and open mind.
You did it well WP.
Peg C #10
I’ve also noticed the word “alledged” being used in numerous MSM newscasts. Are they catching on?
rdw #12
My college room-mate was on the USS Liberty during the attack. He was a radio operator and was in contact with the pilots of the attacking planes – it was no accident as the government claimed. Not by any means!
The day after the alert went out I heard a newscast from the other room. I missed who was talking, but it was some government official talking to the reporter.
“This was a plan of mass murder on a huge scale. They planned to kill hundreds of thousands of people!”
Let’s see – 10 planes, 100,000 people = 10,000 per plane.
That’s really packing ’em in!
Then I heard they were going to blow them up over cities.
I guess that might reduce it to 5,000 per plane.
But then he said hundreds – plural – back to 10,000!
And then there are the 32% out there that believe every word of it!
Erik, #8
And if we might have seen evidence, it would have been collected had not the British authorities been shoved to meet Republican political needs.
Either way: trumped up tripe, or precipitously foiled plot, we lose… unless enough of us see fit to STOP THEM. Gotta see through them to see fit.
I think the Democrats should be giving crash courses in critical thinking all over the country, now that Dean has the mechanism in place.
Maybe they could hire Winter Patriot to oversee the program!
Station Agent – Comment # 19
Yes I like that,..
A trap door in the Oval Office where the evildoers
fall in to a tunnel that leads direct to the arms of Satan,.. fully televised to the world. That would be an inducement to clean up their act real quick.
If only,… it was that easy to clean house. That trap
door is the ballot box – overwhelming ANTI-bu$$hco neo-fascist voting in such high volume/numbers that they can’t game/tamper with the voting tabulation results. The only recourse we have to take back our stolen government.
Peg #10, BB2 #21: Good points. I have also noticed an increase in the frequency of the word “alleged” … and I’ve discussed it a bit with Chris Floyd by email … he probably won’t mind if I share his observation:
Big Dan: you’re right — there should be a high school course in critical thinking and it should be mandatory! But this is unlikely to happen; after all, repressive governments have more to lose from educating their people than they have to gain.
Fortunately for me — for all of us! — I was a competitive debater in high school, and I got most of my training from a friend who just happened to have some very serious skills. He competed at the national level, and he taught me everything he could. Later on, I took college-level courses in Critical Thinking and Logic, and … what am I saying here?
Essentially, I guess I’m trying to express how grateful I am to the people who have helped me to sharpen my frozen little brain over the years. I never imagined that I would be using those skills for this purpose, but I can’t deny that they are coming in handy.
Charlie: You ask good questions! I think there’s a lot of common sense in the response you got from Floridiot. But there are some other strategies worth considering, too, and I would talk about them right now if I didn’t have to log off and go make supper!
Maybe we can talk about this in more depth a little bit later …
And oops! I almost forgot: Thanks for the many kind words on this thread! They are much appreciated.
Old Turk (#25): I agree completely with your proposal that we vote in numbers that are so massive that their theft will be hard to hide.
BUT, please remember, they are quite capable of MASSIVE fraud. It would seem that they stole somewhere between 5 and 7 MILLION votes in 2004, and that doesn’t include the ones they disenfranchised in the 4 years between 2000 and 2004.
The are QUIE capable of QUITE large frauds. The issue is whether or not we will go to the streets (Mexico and Ukraine style) when we know they have stolen from us, or whether the American people will simply give it up to them
I think the system has done quite a good job of convincing the population that Democracy is a game (like a sporting contest) and that even if there is cheating, you have to “live with the decision of the judges” who in this case are the corporate-controlled, right-wing-dominated, media spin machine. One side cheats, and the media says: “It’s all OK” and the game is over… “Just wait till next time.”
Well, at some point, we go to the streets and we take over newspapers and tv stations and making it clear that “We’re mad as hell and not going to take it any more.”
I heard today on the corporate news that “experts” are now saying we need to target the racial types that have perpetrated other terrorist attacks for intense scruntiny–rather than just inspect everyone the same.
As I said a few days ago, racial profiling is effective, not unfair, when you know what group is committing the crime.
Greg Palast’s Monday piece called “So Osama Walked Into This Bar See?” has much of interest to say re this thread.
Here’s some excerpts:
He said, “If security is no laughing matter, why does this guy in a high school marching band outfit tell me to dump my Frappuccino & take off my shoes? All I can say is, Thank the Lord the shoe bomber didn’t carry Semtex in his underpants.”
“Today’s a red & orange alert day. But when these British guys were about to blow up airliners, the USA was on yellow alert.
That’s a lowered threat notice according to the Dept. of Homeland Security. Lowered threat yellow means that there were no special inspections of passengers or cargo.
Isn’t it nice of Mr. Bush to alert Osama when those in security forces are given the day off?
I asked an Israeli security expert why his nation doesn’t use these pretty color codes.
He asked me if, when I wake up, I checked the day’s terror color?
I cannot say I ever have. I mean, who could?
He smiled. ‘The terrorists’.
America is the only nation on the planet that kindly informs bombers, hijackers & beserkers the days on which they won’t be monitored.
You’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to get a jump on George Bush’s team.”
They only do this to increase fear so we don’t notice all the other horrendous things they are doing.
“America is NOT under attack by terrorists.
There is no WAR on Terror because, except for one day 5 years ago, al Qaeda has pretty much left us alone.
That’s because Osama got what he wanted.
He put his wish on his website.
The demand was, ‘Crusaders out of the Land of the two Holy Places.’
Translation: Get US troops out of Saudi Arabia.
George Bush gave it to him on 4-29-03, 2 days before landing in the aircraft carrier Lincoln.
Bush quietly put out a notice that he was withdrawing our troops from Saudi soil.
The press ignored it.
It was not America’s ‘MISSION ACCOMPLISHED’.
It was Osama’s.”
To find the most vulnerable points to attack in the USA, Al Qaeda can download a list from the Dept. of Homeland Security.
They’re called ‘CAVIPs’, which stands for ‘critical assets & vulnerability infrastructure points’.
War on Terror is a sham war by other means, to keep you from asking for real protection from true menace. The landlords of our nation give you fake protection from manufactured dangers.”
Then Palast goes on to state some truly scary facts.
His site is well worth going to.
“Alleged” is the appropriate word to use until the people involved are convicted.
My understanding is that if a reporter says, “the bombers” instead of “the alleged bombers” they can be sued for libel if the bomber is not found guilty.
Reporters use it for every crime & have for a long time.
Charlie L – Comment # 27
Yes voter suppression by the Rethuglican Party is still
running rampant,LINK,..and they still employ devious games to tamper with “leftists” voter registrations,LINK.
It is important that we familiarize ourselves with
Rethuglican ploys and shenanigans to tamper with
election processes that aim to throw elections to their favor. We must remain vigilant and aware and file a formal complaint with the fraud division of the sectretary of states office. Follow thru with multiple complaints if need be and assure that action be taken
to curtail any election illegalities. This must be done on a national state by state basis. We can not let these issues slide especially while we are stuck in political minority party status.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/20..._and_0815.html
Keith Olberman of MSNBC is onto the “coincidences” between Bushco announcing terror threats, right after bad news for Bushco:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/20..._and_0815.html
Someone once said, “An avalanche of BULLSHIT”…I forget who it was…
Fine analysis and a great read, WP.
#16 – Big Dan — That’s thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
I think the latest “liquid bomb” terrorism threat is just such a hoax with purely political motivations. The irony I see is that airline passengers are having their bottles of water, tubes of lipstick, toothpaste, and all sorts of other carry-on toiletry items confiscated in the supposed belief that some of them may contain a liquid which is volatile if it comes in contact with certain other substances and perhaps set off by a spark from someplace. All of these confiscated items are dumped together at the airport security check point, thus helping to meet the physical conditions a would-be terrorist is seeking to create. If this is real and not a hoax, then to act consistently and logically, every suspect item should be handled separately and a safe distance should be maintained at all times until the items are either tested or destroyed in a secure environment.
I have read that airport security people are now perplexed what to do with all the contraban they have seized. Some have talked about donating it to the homeless!
WP: You really tied it all together. Excellent. One of the most important point, is that the mainstream media (corporate-owned TV, newspapers, radio) have permanently turned into just a forum to broadcast GOP lies. What you did here, is what the MSM should be doing, and used to do. All they do now, is broadcast any lies and misinformation that comes down the pike, without challenging it or even stopping it…they just broadcast it. We all have to educate ourselves and our children of this. I did. My kids are well aware of the corporate media lies and misinformation. We watch LINK-TV & FSTV. And my kids know WHY we do, too.
What I can’t believe the most, looking back, is that it took me until I was in my 40’s to realize this. It should be taught in public schools, how to detect and analyze MSM misinformation and lies.
#17 oldturk: I wuz gonna post that, you bastard!
I’ll post this one instead, then…
http://www.democracynow.org/art.../08/15/1327200
John Dean’s book. Conservatives without a conscience.
Big Dan: Comment # 36
I’m sorry,..
that happens with great frequency here,.. we are all like feral cats out hunting down the latest MSM news spin,.. and dragging our most recent trophies home
and depositing them by the backdoor so that all inhabitants can share with us our current prize.
*********************
Big Dan Again,.. Re: Comment # 16
You are aware I am sure that those two “KIDNAPPED” Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah. Those Israeli soldiers had crossed the boarder into Lebanon,.. into sovereign territory
without permission, authorization, or acknowledgement,.. so by international standards they were not “Kidnapped” but rather CAPTURED from foreign territory where they had no right to be.
This fact has disappeared from the MSM media and it irks me,.. so it is worth repeating this reality/truth
once again.
Isralei soldiers “captured” inside Lebanon
I should have known better,..
Democracy Now is one of his favorite haunts.
I heard it on the radio,.. then came home and found it,.. and posted it.
Charlene: I agree with most of your comment #28 and all of #29. But I disagree with you about racial profiling.
We have seen essentially no evidence tying any particular racial group to terrorist attacks. Look at all the “terror events” that we’ve been so worked up over — they all seem to have been false-flag operations. In other words, they look like crimes committed by one group and blamed on another.
That’s what Greg Palast seems to be saying, in the quotes you provided, when he jokes about how meaningless our “security precautions” are … and your comment #29 seems to imply some understanding of this issue, too, so it strikes me as very strange that you should say all this and then come out in favor of racial profiling.
I believe that racial profiling is extremely unfair, and not likely to be very effective. You are welcome to your own opinion, of course, but I think I would be negligent if I failed to mention that I disagree with you very strongly on this point.
I would say the only way racial profiling might be legitimate is in catching the would-be false flag terror perpetrators who may try to pass themselves off as someone from the desired ethnic group to scapegoat them. I am thinking of those British soldiers in Basra who got caught red-handed about 6 months ago in Arab disguise in a private vehicle carrying explosives and weapons to presumably commit terrorist acts.
One wonders how many (or few) of the bombings in Iraq are really perpetrated by Iraqis against other Iraqis without any inducement or assistance from coalition army (i.e., US or British) agents.
I have read that many of the vehicles used for “suicide car” bombings have been traced to cars which have been stolen on the streets of the good old US of A. So how did they wind up in Iraq? Do we really think Iraqi insurgents have the connections to do that, and why should they bother?
The aim of the US government has never been to try to leave Iraq as soon as possible, but to remain and control their resources, economy, and political system as long as possible.
I do not believe in racial profiling. Remember Timothy McVeigh, Ted Kaminsky, Columbine? This is a war on people of color. Any color thats not white. I’m sure you all have heard what George Allen called an Indian American this week. Macaca. WTF! And this guys says hes running for president? No thanks! WP great article, Right on as always. I sure am glad your back here with all your critical thinking skills! Ewastud, I’ve wondered the same thing myself many times. It makes me sick that people believe we are bringing Democracy around the world, when I believe it is our government who is doing the terrorizing!
I guess under “categories” (to get BB articles on the subject), it has to be something like “War on Terror” – but too bad. Most of us here have a problem with that phrase, I think.
WP
Al Qaeda is not a threat.
But Bush’s war in Iraq has created new enemies who now hate us for slaughtering muslims.
The term “racial profiling” does not refer to race alone. It also refers to people related by descent, history, language, physical characteristics etc.
When Brad blogs, I’ve never seen him take an active role in the discussion phase. Unlike you & 99, he only comments to clear things up when his thread is misunderstood by his bloggers.
It “strikes me as very strange that you would say all this” too.
We’re not the only ones who are sceptical…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1851078,00.html
Charlene in #43 wrote:
Absolutely. People all over the world hate “us” for slaughtering Muslims. People of all shapes, sizes, colors and creeds are thoroughly offended by “our” foreign policy. But does that mean they pose a significant threat? More to the point, how can we pick them out in a line at an airport? And if we institute a policy of hassling everyone who fits a certain “profile” — be it based on skin color or language or style of dress or whatever else — will it not quickly devolve into hassling everyone who doesn’t look like a wealthy white businessman? And will the people who are thereby reduced to second-class citizen status not have even more reason to hate “us”?
Understood. But I am still wondering how you can tell who poses a danger, just by looking at them.
Well, I’m not Brad; and we have different blogging styles. I don’t see what 99 has to do with this. She doesn’t start any threads; she comments where and when she likes, same as anyone else.
Personally, I like to watch the threads I start and participate in the discussions when possible. Plenty of bloggers do that — look around the blogosphere and you will see that Brad is probably in the minority on this.
But … is there something wrong with my approach, in your opinion? And if so, can you please tell us what you find wrong about it?
I don’t imagine that it would strike very many of my regular readers as strange. But you’re welcome to your opinion.
I honestly don’t think there’s one single person in the world that thinks this administration doesn’t lie about everything. The people who still support them explain it away by saying, “It’s a real tough job”. This puts all of us in a very dangerous situation! Every time we’re informed of something, you have to think, I’ll wait a couple of days to see what really happened!
All these guys know how to do is lie, cheat, steal, and then do damage control when they get caught. They even do damage control when it’s not needed. The other day when Bush almost fell down the steps of Air Force one, somebody on TV said that it’s a good thing he always uses the railing, so the next time you see him come down the steps, he doesn’t use the railing.
Is this governance?
Former British Ambassador says terror alert is “propoganda”….
http://www.prisonplanet.com/art...propaganda.htm
Stop the madness refuse to fly….
http://www.opednews.com/article...adness__re.htm
I’m a Northern California girl. As a young lady I once had to be in Los Angeles. All I had was a map and a very fancy car. That fancy car broke down smack dab in the middle of Watts. Didn’t know where I was, had just followed the shortest route from A to B on the map. It would be FIVE HOURS, well into the night, before a friend could come to get me. There was no way out of Watts for a white woman alone with a broken car. No tow trucks would come; no taxis would come; the police would not stop. Nothing. I sat in my dead car next to the cashier’s booth of an all night gas station that was completely encased in bars, and the clerk had told me he’d keep calling my friend, who was out for the evening, until he could get him to come pick me up, but that I was to get in the car, lock it, and not to get out of it for any reason. I was scared to death… had been scared to death by all the people screaming for me to get out of there before I got raped and killed.
After a couple hours, locked in the car, a black man crossed the street, headed in the general direction of my car. Naturally, he was staring at me. I’d cracked the window for air. I rolled it up and slunk down in the seat. As he walked past to go to the clerk for a pack of cigarettes, he said, “Relax, relax. I’m not going to hurt you.”
I felt like a piece of shit for fearing that he would. After everyone having a fit about me being in Watts all evening, they had me terrified. Still, feeling myself fear someone on his way ’round for a pack of smokes, made me want to puke… literally made me want to barf up the filth in me. I started crying at that point. The thing that made me cry was fearing an ordinary guy, just going about his life, because he was black… EVEN IN WATTS.
I’d say maybe people who favor racial profiling might try doing that profiling to see how it feels, see what it makes them feel like inside, since it doesn’t work to try to remind them how it feels to be the victim of it, but… oh… never mind.
Congrats, WP and all, on a most absorbing post and ensuing thread. You know you’re on the right track when good old Perry comes around, sniffing and wishing for body cavity searches, anything to change the subject. I for one am very grateful to WP for throwing in his occasional two cents’ worth, and I am, frankly, blown away by your fine piece of journalism here, my nearly frozen friend. Thanks for taking Brad to heart, and just “being the media”!!!
99 – I’m a straight-laced New England/Old South sort, and I did my own crying in humiliation at my heinous idiocy when I went into the Army in 1965. It’s no shame, having been brought up with prejudices, shame lies in failing to grow up. It’s a pity that the most effective lessons are often given in extremis, or however those wise ole Roman boys would put it. Thank you for sharing your experience. It would be different now, I suppose, what with cellphones and all that great stuff…
Thanks for sharing 99, I had been taught as a young child to hate and deride people of color. My father was a racist who said the night MLK was killed that all N****** should be lined up and shot. I learned quickly that I myself did not feel that way. A black girl came to my private parochial school and taught me a lot about being a person of color. She was invited to many parties and sleepovers and we all came to love and respect her. She taught me how wrong my fathers opinions were. I refuse to allow racist talk in my home or business. I find that I always speak up for the underdog no matter what their skin color. My sons friend came over the other day and said he had dropped a friend in a not so good neighborhood and got jumped and they stole his car. First I told him I was glad he was OK. Then told him to not paint all people of color with the same brush. If the young men who jumped him had the same opportunities he had maybe they wouldn’t be out beating people up. I made sure to remind him to get registered to vote in the elections come this fall and to vote Democratic. That is the only way for all people to get a fair shake in this country. I believe this is in direct relation to cuts in social programs, cuts in education funding. I have noticed that since the economy is on the skids more crime is being commited, even in my upper middle class town. House and car burglaries are way up. Kids 17 and younger got caught commiting armed robberies just about 2 miles from my house. What a shame, these are white upper middle class kids. Where are the parents? “Oh my kid would never do that” Are you so sure? It starts in the home. What are parents teaching their kids? Not diversity thats for sure! We are ALL members of the same human race and we better start coming together and stamp this shit out! Our children are our mirror images. Look in the mirror, is it a reflection we can be proud or ashamed of?
I live in the UK, I fly to the States. Why am I not scared?
I know Bush and Blair want me to be scared, but I’m not.
Why not? I wish I knew.
For years we’ve all been hearing that you sure don’t want to go to prison because some big black guy will take you to be his “bitch”.
Lately I’ve been hearing another one. If you go to prison, even if you don’t have a racist bone in your body, you better not EVER talk to a black man if you’re white, or a white man if you’re black. If you do, you will experience unspeakable harm!
I got to thinking about this and realized this may be true, however, who is really causing this divide that must not be crossed. Who would really benefit the most from it. THE PRISON GUARDS AND STAFF! Why try to control everybody at once in a riot if you don’t have to. Keep the prisoners from plotting by default!
Could this simple principal be at work in the larger society. Is there really any reason for us to be racist at all other then to keep us generally divided as a norm! Why did they REALLY fight so hard against segregation in the sixties.
GOP on QUE
People, this is not a “failed†war and this is not a “failed†foreign policy. Members of the Bush administration and congress have made millions and billions off of these “failed†issues.To their delight, these have been totally successful campaigns for them.
It was their plan all along. There really is no reason for them to change it, they are right on que with their play book, that good ol’ Wolfowitz at the World Bank help them write 25 years ago.
They have implanted their people in virtually every agency in this country.
A few weeks ago Rove said simply “it doesn’t matter, they (the dems) are not going to winâ€
Due to the web they have woven we do need to be on high alert for terrorist attacks.
GOP terrorist attacks on our election systems that they OWN!