The Fromson File

On Terrorism Where lies the truth about a heightened terrorist threat to the United States? Are we on the cusp of another 9/11 or something similar as the Bush Administration implies? The initial and dramatic announcement by Tom Ridge, the Secretary of Homeland Security, of intelligence discoveries in Pakistan seemed to point in that direction. However, no sooner than the grounds for a new alert were laid out rather ineptly by Ridge than we were told the information was anywhere from years to six months old, taken from a computer disc owned by a high-ranking Al Qaeda operative in captivity. After so many false alarms in the past few years, it begs the question of how to reduce the anxiety level of Americans who have every right to wonder if their safety truly is in jeopardy. Skepticism is being voiced across the country, including the heartland where the President and Senator John Kerry are competing for the votes of the undecided. The dramatic pictures and video of armed police on Wall Street and important avenues in the nation’s capital could not help but cause concern everywhere. After all, we are not a police state and, like it or not, the impression that heightened security is necessary tends to unsettle a people accustomed to their freedom. We want to be shown the beef and in the absence of it, meaning proof, skepticism is bound to follow. Were those emotions being manipulated by the White House at a time when the presidential election is just beginning to heat up? Ridge and a spokesman for the Oval Office fired back with what they described as new information that seemed to confirm that plans were afoot to attack major financial institutions in New York, Washington and New Jersey. Ridge was outraged by the suggestion of manipulation. How dare anyone, he said, assume that the terrorist alert was sounded for political reasons? Surely, by now, Ridge and the President himself must be aware of the mounting skepticism being voiced by innumerable Americans who have been subjected for months to inconveniences caused by Orange Alerts at the nation’s airports and other public facilities. Standing in long lines is one thing. Having to take off your shoes every time you board a plane can be a royal pain in the rump and irritating. The repeated cries of wolf from Homeland Security and a corral of anti-terrorism experts are at the root of public skepticism. You can’t blame people for wondering where the truth lies. The press has been rife with hints that the White House may attempt to spring a major surprise in the run-up to the election that most assuredly would reflect favorably on the President’s chances for re-election.. Consider this excerpt from a startling article buried on Page 15 in the July 19th edition of The New Republic. It is entitled: "July Surprise?" by Spencer Ackerman, Massoud Ansari and John B. Judis. Ansari, identified in the shirt tail as "a frequent TNR contributor," reported from Karachi. He claims there has been intense pressure from the Bush Administration on the Pakistani government to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri or the Taliban's Mullah Mohammed Omar, all of whom are believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan. The article describes Washington's demand that Pakistan's intelligence services take action against HVTs (high value targets) before the November election. More specifically, the article quotes an unidentified source who works as a top aide to Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq as saying the Pakistanis "have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before (the) election is (an) absolute must." "Bush Administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement,”: the authors claim...The last ten days of July deadline have been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during (ul-Haq's) meetings in Washington." Ul-Haq heads the ISI (Intelligence Security Services). A U.S. National Security Council spokesman, Sean McCormack, claims says, "I'm aware of no such comment." But the TNR writer says that a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that "it would be best if the arrest or killing of (any) HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven or twenty-eight July"...the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston. There has been no reaction from Senator Kerry. But his post-Convention campaign seems listless. Long on platitudes, short on stingers, he seemingly is reluctant to clarify sharply the differences he has with President Bush on the war and terrorism, the issues that may well decide the outcome of the election. Writing in Slate Magazine, Professor Daniel Byman of Georgetown University says that while the “battle against terrorists has only begun,” he believes the arena has shifted with disruption of their bases in Afghanistan, and increasing harassment being exerted in Europe and Asia. Leaders of al Qaeda are “under intense pressure, with killings and arrests commonplace. As a result, attacks that require meticulous planning and widespread coordination are far more difficult to carry out.” There may yet be another explanation. Approaching the third anniversary of 9/11 and remembrances of the tragedy, grief and fear that it inflicted on American families and the nation as a whole, the planners and the 19 hijackers themselves may not have imagined the consequences their horrific acts would have on the U.S. beyond the destruction of the Twin Towers and the attack on the Pentagon. Mark down what happened three years ago to extremely long-range planning and dumb luck. While it is always risky to forecast events of such unpredictability, the unanswerable question lingers on. Can America be held hostage to a horror of such magnitude ever again? Perhaps, but it is questionable. More troubling is the impact 9/11 has had on American society. Quite aside from providing the motivation for the Administration’s illogical war on Iraq, whose consequences will be felt for years, we will have to contend with the economic fallout, the mania for intensified security and the questionable effect on our civil liberties. It may re-shape the nature of American democracy in ways none of us ever could have imagined before.