putting on my tinfoil hat...

[frogcycle]

regarding the sudden rhetoric about Al Qaeda resurgence:

You have to think they are laying the groundwork for something

They should be embarrassed to admit we are at risk at home, what with all the rhetoric about fighting them 'over there' and 'no attacks since 9/11'

Turning up the fear of a domestic attack is an about-face that you automatically have to suspect. After all, they have never, ever, actually just reported facts without 'spin.' There is an ulterior motive behind each and every communication from this cabal.

Unless this one is somehow calculated just to turn up the fear as a distraction, to draw attention away from gonzogate, tillmangate, diapergate, it is part of a new strategy - leading to some new event.

While short-term perturbations in numbers can be wildly misleading, and no long-term extrapolations should be made from them, the fact is that in the past eight days we have had 'only' seven US fatalities in Iraq. And only three of those were IEDs.

The easiest way to manipulate those statistics, and you have to believe they are, since Tony Snow remarked offhandedly that "casualties are down" the other day*, would be simply to not send 4- and 5- person groups out on missions in humvees. Just declare a temporary "holiday" and everyone sit tight where they are. I have no source to tell me whether that is the case. But I would be astonished if there were no changes in our troops' daily activities and this dramatic a change, short-lived though it may be**. The big numbers we've seen over the past several months have been generated largely by multiple-fatality ambush incidents, whether IED or small arms. The sudden change is suspect, in my opinion. There were twenty seven killed in the first six days of July, then seven the next eight days. This is the period in which the rhetoric about the resurgence of Al Qaeda has heated up.

Do I think the disinformation machine is in high gear? You bet I do.

Is something big in the offing? Maybe, maybe not. I guess it COULD be that they just want to defuse the "bring them home" fervor. Get the wavering pugs to look at the short-term improvement and say "oh, gee, bush was right, lets stay the course" and then once the next funding is approved without strings, send them all back out into the killing fields. Do I think they are that cynical? You bet I do.



*this is a spurious claim, in that the overall trend has been up, except for these six days. That they have noticed and opted to point it out immediately suggests it is not just a happenstance

** obviously a change in the insurgents' behavior could be equally dramatic. THEY could be playing mind games, too. The third option - that it is "just chaos theory being demonstrated" is certainly possible, but Snow's remark makes me suspect that neither of these two are the reason.

[LaurenG]

1. I have to say that given this administrations history I am not surprised

that the "tera" threat is high. Remember when Howard Dean just came out and said that they used the "tera" threat whenever they wanted to focus attention elsewhere.

Even if it's true, I could care less, it's up to bush to stop it and I will just enjoy my life in spite of anything they say.

[ThatsMyBarack]

2. Oh, is THAT what the tinfoil hats are for?

Every time someone such as * or Faux news reports a "terra" threat?

[KharmaTrain]

3. They Want An Attack vs. They Don't Want An Attack...

I can't rule out this regime being complicit in some attack as a "hail mary" to hold onto power...whip up the fear and crank up the Fear Wurlitzer. Actually, I silently predicted such an attack in '04...on a country like Canada...close but not too close.

The downside on this theory is how this regime and its enablers claim that they've made this country safer and how we haven't been attacked on 9/11. It's one of the few quivers they have left that does resonate with "moderates". An attack...especially one that leads to a breakdown of civil authority...or a Katrina-like response...would erode what remains of "the base" and increase demands in his own cabal to make changes.

[uppityperson]

4. I just posted a similar thing.

The Occupation of Iraq and other USA admin policies has made many people in the world really angry at the USA. Most people in the world can see the difference betwen a ruling gvt and the people of a country, but there are people who would be happy to hurt people in the USA and other places to show how angry they are (people ranging from skin heads to Timothy McVeighs to suicide bombers who do not believe Death is the worst thing there is).

The bushite administration has lied and tried to manipulate things for the last 7 yrs, cryed "wolf!" repeatedly, refused to take any responsibility for its acts, caused so much harm to so many and generally is as trustworthy as a hungry tick.

So, how do I reconcile these 2? This is a big country and personally I am more worried about coyotes eating my chickens or a random act of nastiness than being targeted as an uppityAmerikan, but it could happen but I won't live in fear but still things give me pause.

Anyone else want to comment? I'll be checking in for a bit today, then am away from computers for a couple wks except for periodic check-ins. Peace and onward.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1333893

[frogcycle]

5. so now OBL shows up on a new video

hmmmm