Category Archives: National Security

Someone at Homeland Security has decided that the very worst thing that can happen to the USA is that terrorists would strike and Democrats would accuse the administration of being unprepared. So we get hundreds of scary “warnings,” none based on any evidence, create daily propaganda victories for our enemies, contribute to a generalized climate of fear and insecurity (which helps Bush poll numbers), and all gradually become desensitized to government warnings.

Consider this SCARY WARNING reported by today's Wall St. Journal

Amid rising tensions over a long-anticipated al Qaeda attack to disrupt the November elections, the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau Investigation warned Florida law-enforcement officials that tomorrow's presidential debate at the University of Miami could be a terrorist target.

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES. HIDE UNDER THE BEDS. WE'RE ALL DOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED.

“At this time, DHS and the FBI have not received any information regarding a specific terrorist threat to the first 2004 presidential debate,” the agencies told Florida's homeland-security adviser and the FBI's Miami field office.

Oh, never mind.

My high school classmate Sally Donnelly, or someone with the same name employed by TIME magazine, writes in You Say Yusuf, I Say Youssouf… that,

The Yusuf Islam incident earlier this week, in which the former Cat Stevens was denied entry into the U.S. when federal officials determined he was on the government's “no-fly” antiterror list, started with a simple spelling error. According to aviation sources with access to the list, there is no Yusuf Islam on the no-fly registry, though there is a “Youssouf Islam.” The incorrect name was added to the register this summer, but because Islam's name is spelled “Yusuf” on his British passport, he was allowed to board a plane in London bound for the U.S.

Homeland Security Dept. at work. Feel safer yet?

The Historians' Committee for Fairness has issued a very strong letter condeming Michelle Malkin's latest book and those media outlets that promote it without at least giving some time for a contrary view. Which is what Fox wannabes do.

I first heard about this on NPR yesterday and was startled that the announcer treated it as a routine fact. Placing US forces under foreign command is not IMHO inherently wrong, but it is assuredly controversial, and not something to be done lightly. Yet, here apparently, a whole lot of US troops are under the tactical command of Iraqi officials…at least officially.

First Draft, in the link above, wonders why the Freepers are not getting all hot and bothered about this, given their hostility to UN and other joint operations in which US troops might have to take foreign orders.

I think the reason is obvious, and it's not just that they don't want to make waves for Bush. Rather, it's that no one really believes that the Iraqi government sneezes without US permission. (Reminds me of South Vietnam, although they did exhibit independence from time to time.)

Correction: there is one group that believes in Iraqi self-determination. That would be the credulous press which no longer gives as much prominence to reports of US casualties in Iraq.

Did you know that US fatalities now stand at 996 966? And that total coalition forces have suffered almost 1100 dead? Not to mention contractor fatalities, or the many many wounded. Details on Iraq casualties at the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

John Young, the owner of Cryptome, is notorious for many things, one of them being an encrypted neo-Joycean prose style. So it's something of a shock to have him prodcue a more Hemmingway-like account of ABC News's Visit to Cryptome.

And, here's ABC News's Report.