"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
When I was studying Journalism, one of my professors told me that whenever I see the same story, presented in the same context by virtually the entire media, before any facts are truly presented, start digging.
Al-Qaida has rebuilt, U.S. intel warns
By KATHERINE SHRADER and MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writers Wed Jul 11, 7:29 PM ET
WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaida has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Associated Press has learned. The conclusion suggests that the group that launched the most devastating terror attack on the United States has been able to regroup along the Afghan-Pakistani border despite nearly six years of bombings, war and other tactics aimed at crippling it.
ADVERTISEMENT
Still, numerous government officials say they know of no specific, credible threat of a new attack on U.S. soil.
A counterterrorism official familiar with a five-page summary of the new government threat assessment called it a stark appraisal to be discussed at the White House on Thursday as part of a broader meeting on an upcoming National Intelligence Estimate.
The official and others spoke on condition of anonymity because the secret report remains classified.
Counterterrorism analysts produced the document, titled "Al-Qaida better positioned to strike the West." The document focuses on the terror group's safe haven in Pakistan and makes a range of observations about the threat posed to the United States and its allies, officials said.
Al-Qaida is "considerably operationally stronger than a year ago" and has "regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001," the official said, paraphrasing the report's conclusions. "They are showing greater and greater ability to plan attacks in Europe and the United States."
The group also has created "the most robust training program since 2001, with an interest in using European operatives," the official quoted the report as saying.
At the same time, this official said, the report speaks of "significant gaps in intelligence" so U.S. authorities may be ignorant of potential or planned attacks.
John Kringen, who heads the CIA's analysis directorate, echoed the concerns about al-Qaida's resurgence during testimony and conversations with reporters at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday.
"They seem to be fairly well settled into the safe haven and the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan," Kringen testified. "We see more training. We see more money. We see more communications. We see that activity rising."
The threat assessment comes as the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies prepare a National Intelligence Estimate focusing on threats to the United States. A senior intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity while the high-level analysis was being finalized, said the document has been in the works for roughly two years.
Kringen and aides to National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell would not comment on the details of that analysis. "Preparation of the estimate is not a response to any specific threat," McConnell's spokesman Ross Feinstein said, adding that it would be ready for distribution this summer.
Counterterrorism officials have been increasingly concerned about al-Qaida's recent operations. This week, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he had a "gut feeling" that the United States faced a heightened risk of attack this summer.
Kringen said he wouldn't attach a summer time frame to the concern. In studying the threat, he said he begins with the premise that al-Qaida would consider attacking the U.S. a "home run hit" and that the easiest way to get into the United States would be through Europe.
The new threat assessment puts particular focus on Pakistan, as did Kringen.
"Sooner or later you have to quit permitting them to have a safe haven" along the Afghan-Pakistani border, he told the House committee. "At the end of the day, when we have had success, it is when you've been able to get them worried about who was informing on them, get them worried about who was coming after them."
Several European countries — among them Britain, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands — are also highlighted in the threat assessment partly because they have arrangements with the Pakistani government that allow their citizens easier access to Pakistan than others, according to the counterterrorism official.
This is more troubling because all four are part of the U.S. visa waiver program, and their citizens can enter the United States without additional security scrutiny, the official said.
The Bush administration has repeatedly cited al-Qaida as a key justification for continuing the fight in Iraq.
"The No. 1 enemy in Iraq is al-Qaida," White House press secretary Tony Snow said Wednesday. "Al-Qaida continues to be the chief organizer of mayhem within Iraq, the chief organization for killing innocent Iraqis."
The findings could bolster the president's hand at a moment when support on Capitol Hill for the war is eroding and the administration is struggling to defend its decision for a military buildup in Iraq. A progress report that the White House is releasing to Congress this week is expected to indicate scant progress on the political and military benchmarks set for Iraq.
The threat assessment says that al-Qaida stepped up efforts to "improve its core operational capability" in late 2004 but did not succeed until December of 2006 after the Pakistani government signed a peace agreement with tribal leaders that effectively removed government military presence from the northwest frontier with Afghanistan.
The agreement allows Taliban and al-Qaida operatives to move across the border with impunity and establish and run training centers, the report says, according to the official.
It also says that al-Qaida is particularly interested in building up the numbers in its middle ranks, or operational positions, so there is not as great a lag in attacks when such people are killed.
"Being No. 3 in al-Qaida is a bad job. We regularly get to the No. 3 person," Tom Fingar, the top U.S. intelligence analyst, told the House panel.
The counterterror official said the report does not focus on al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, his whereabouts or his role in the terrorist network. Officials say al-Qaida has become more like a "family-oriented" mob organization with leadership roles in cells and other groups being handed from father to son, or cousin to uncle.
Yet bin Laden's whereabouts are still of great interest to intelligence agencies. Although he has not been heard from for some time, Kringen said officials believe he is still alive and living under the protection of tribal leaders in the border area.
Armed Services Committee members expressed frustration that more was not being done to get bin Laden and tamp down activity in the tribal areas. The senior intelligence analysts tried to portray the difficulty of operating in the area despite a $25 million bounty on the head of bin Laden and his top deputy.
"They are in an environment that is more hostile to us than it is to al-Qaida," Fingar said.
___
Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070711/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_terror_threat
Officials worry of summer terror attack
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070710/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/summer_terror_threats_8
Please don't put it past any member of this administration to cheerfully arrange for this to happen before the wheels come completely off the war wagon.
Military Analyst: West Needs More Terror To Save Doomed Foreign Policy
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?5541S
Al Qaeda Cell in the U.S. Or On Its Way, According to New Intel
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/07/al-qaeda-cell-i.html
From Chertoff's "gut feeling" that a US terror attack is looming for this summer to Rick Santorum's dark statement that more terror attacks will change the way Americans view the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it appears that the US is being set up with fear, fear, and more fear possibly in advance of something terrible happening.
"No, really, it's gonna happen. and it's just a total coincidence that it's gonna happen right when we are ready to attack Iran, just as it was a total coincidence that 9-11 happened just when we were ready to attack Afghanistan! Honest!"
Lieberman: US will back Israeli strike on Iran
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=13407
Iran will then counter-attack, with American men and women stuck right on the path Iran must follow to get to Israel. Iran and the US will be at war, with Israel laughing their heads off over how easy it is to trick the 'dumb Christians and dumb Muslims' into killing each other.
'Time running out for Iran strike'
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1183980036210&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
Sunstitiute 'Iraq' for Iran, and I've seen this same headline. From this same source.
New envoy to U.K.: Jews must do more to put Iran on the agenda
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/880388.html
Once again Israel uses the world's Jewish people to serve its goal of tricking other nations into attacking Israel's enemies.
Personally, I think this is just more pro-war propaganda, and "Al Qaeda" is just a bunch of spies playing at terrorists to scare you all into marching off to kill other people living over the oil.
But, let us for a moment stipulate that, yes indeed, Al Qaeda is back stronger than ever. What does that really mean?
It means that all the spying, the searches of our homes and computers, the constant TV cameras, the fondling of our wives and daughters at the airports, the wiretaps, the reading of our emails, the torture ... HAVE ALL FAILED. So, it's either Complicity or Incompetence for the Bush/PNAC Regime.
None of it works. All that time and money has been a total waste. For all the suffering and inconvenience inflicted on the American people, Homeland Security failed.
This will be all the more true if there is a new terror attack. It will mean that all those government officials who promised us safety if would but lay our entire lives bare before them lied to us. It will mean that there really isn't anything to be gained by going along with the repression any more, indeed to even listen to them will be totally pointless. It means that all the fondling of our wives and daughters at the airport was just that; a bunch of perverts waving a badge to get their jollies with their machines that look at you without your clothes on.
There is one and only one way to end terrorism, and that is to stop screwing around with other peoples' countries. When you stop screwing around with other peoples countries, the terrorists will go home. and when you start finding and hanging the spies for foreign government pretending to be terrorists to trick you into war on that foreign government's enemies, we will have peace and freedom.
The Phony (Mossad) Al Qaeda Cell in Palestine
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fakealqaeda.html
Of course this is planned, as (on top of plans already laid to seize even more dictatorial control in such an event) Bush/PNAC have already signalled that such an attack will immediately be blamed on Iran (with or without evidence), and this will enable the planned US/Israeli attack on the country. In itself, this is an interesting policy development, virtually ignored by the media, and was necessitated after the world as a whole soundly rejected the "Iraq Treatment" intended to build support for this illegal Act of Aggression.
But this is an interesting proposition itself, because another attack would only expose the futility and failure of the so-called "war on terror", and the incompetence and inability of this Regime (or lack of desire) to protect its own.
Israeli Military Preps For Next War
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?5522S
Israel's Next War
by Uri Avnery
www.antiwar.com/avnery/?articleid=10994
Neo-Fascists Finalize Plans For War
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?5417S
Sheehan: Distinct Chance Of Staged Attack, Martial Law
http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=3746
The new drumbeat on Iran
The Bush team's latest rationale for bombing Iran is even lamer than all the previous ones. But hey, Joe Lieberman buys it. Comforted?
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/stephen_kinzer/2007/07/the_new_drumbeat_on_iran.html
Al-Qaida has rebuilt, U.S. intel warns
By KATHERINE SHRADER and MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writers Wed Jul 11, 7:29 PM ET
WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaida has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Associated Press has learned. The conclusion suggests that the group that launched the most devastating terror attack on the United States has been able to regroup along the Afghan-Pakistani border despite nearly six years of bombings, war and other tactics aimed at crippling it.
ADVERTISEMENT
Still, numerous government officials say they know of no specific, credible threat of a new attack on U.S. soil.
A counterterrorism official familiar with a five-page summary of the new government threat assessment called it a stark appraisal to be discussed at the White House on Thursday as part of a broader meeting on an upcoming National Intelligence Estimate.
The official and others spoke on condition of anonymity because the secret report remains classified.
Counterterrorism analysts produced the document, titled "Al-Qaida better positioned to strike the West." The document focuses on the terror group's safe haven in Pakistan and makes a range of observations about the threat posed to the United States and its allies, officials said.
Al-Qaida is "considerably operationally stronger than a year ago" and has "regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001," the official said, paraphrasing the report's conclusions. "They are showing greater and greater ability to plan attacks in Europe and the United States."
The group also has created "the most robust training program since 2001, with an interest in using European operatives," the official quoted the report as saying.
At the same time, this official said, the report speaks of "significant gaps in intelligence" so U.S. authorities may be ignorant of potential or planned attacks.
John Kringen, who heads the CIA's analysis directorate, echoed the concerns about al-Qaida's resurgence during testimony and conversations with reporters at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday.
"They seem to be fairly well settled into the safe haven and the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan," Kringen testified. "We see more training. We see more money. We see more communications. We see that activity rising."
The threat assessment comes as the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies prepare a National Intelligence Estimate focusing on threats to the United States. A senior intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity while the high-level analysis was being finalized, said the document has been in the works for roughly two years.
Kringen and aides to National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell would not comment on the details of that analysis. "Preparation of the estimate is not a response to any specific threat," McConnell's spokesman Ross Feinstein said, adding that it would be ready for distribution this summer.
Counterterrorism officials have been increasingly concerned about al-Qaida's recent operations. This week, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he had a "gut feeling" that the United States faced a heightened risk of attack this summer.
Kringen said he wouldn't attach a summer time frame to the concern. In studying the threat, he said he begins with the premise that al-Qaida would consider attacking the U.S. a "home run hit" and that the easiest way to get into the United States would be through Europe.
The new threat assessment puts particular focus on Pakistan, as did Kringen.
"Sooner or later you have to quit permitting them to have a safe haven" along the Afghan-Pakistani border, he told the House committee. "At the end of the day, when we have had success, it is when you've been able to get them worried about who was informing on them, get them worried about who was coming after them."
Several European countries — among them Britain, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands — are also highlighted in the threat assessment partly because they have arrangements with the Pakistani government that allow their citizens easier access to Pakistan than others, according to the counterterrorism official.
This is more troubling because all four are part of the U.S. visa waiver program, and their citizens can enter the United States without additional security scrutiny, the official said.
The Bush administration has repeatedly cited al-Qaida as a key justification for continuing the fight in Iraq.
"The No. 1 enemy in Iraq is al-Qaida," White House press secretary Tony Snow said Wednesday. "Al-Qaida continues to be the chief organizer of mayhem within Iraq, the chief organization for killing innocent Iraqis."
The findings could bolster the president's hand at a moment when support on Capitol Hill for the war is eroding and the administration is struggling to defend its decision for a military buildup in Iraq. A progress report that the White House is releasing to Congress this week is expected to indicate scant progress on the political and military benchmarks set for Iraq.
The threat assessment says that al-Qaida stepped up efforts to "improve its core operational capability" in late 2004 but did not succeed until December of 2006 after the Pakistani government signed a peace agreement with tribal leaders that effectively removed government military presence from the northwest frontier with Afghanistan.
The agreement allows Taliban and al-Qaida operatives to move across the border with impunity and establish and run training centers, the report says, according to the official.
It also says that al-Qaida is particularly interested in building up the numbers in its middle ranks, or operational positions, so there is not as great a lag in attacks when such people are killed.
"Being No. 3 in al-Qaida is a bad job. We regularly get to the No. 3 person," Tom Fingar, the top U.S. intelligence analyst, told the House panel.
The counterterror official said the report does not focus on al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, his whereabouts or his role in the terrorist network. Officials say al-Qaida has become more like a "family-oriented" mob organization with leadership roles in cells and other groups being handed from father to son, or cousin to uncle.
Yet bin Laden's whereabouts are still of great interest to intelligence agencies. Although he has not been heard from for some time, Kringen said officials believe he is still alive and living under the protection of tribal leaders in the border area.
Armed Services Committee members expressed frustration that more was not being done to get bin Laden and tamp down activity in the tribal areas. The senior intelligence analysts tried to portray the difficulty of operating in the area despite a $25 million bounty on the head of bin Laden and his top deputy.
"They are in an environment that is more hostile to us than it is to al-Qaida," Fingar said.
___
Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070711/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_terror_threat Officials worry of summer terror attack
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070710/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/summer_terror_threats_8 Please don't put it past any member of this administration to cheerfully arrange for this to happen before the wheels come completely off the war wagon.
Military Analyst: West Needs More Terror To Save Doomed Foreign Policy
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?5541S Al Qaeda Cell in the U.S. Or On Its Way, According to New Intel
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/07/al-qaeda-cell-i.html From Chertoff's "gut feeling" that a US terror attack is looming for this summer to Rick Santorum's dark statement that more terror attacks will change the way Americans view the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it appears that the US is being set up with fear, fear, and more fear possibly in advance of something terrible happening.
"No, really, it's gonna happen. and it's just a total coincidence that it's gonna happen right when we are ready to attack Iran, just as it was a total coincidence that 9-11 happened just when we were ready to attack Afghanistan! Honest!"
Lieberman: US will back Israeli strike on Iran
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=13407 Iran will then counter-attack, with American men and women stuck right on the path Iran must follow to get to Israel. Iran and the US will be at war, with Israel laughing their heads off over how easy it is to trick the 'dumb Christians and dumb Muslims' into killing each other.
'Time running out for Iran strike'
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1183980036210&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter Sunstitiute 'Iraq' for Iran, and I've seen this same headline. From this same source.
New envoy to U.K.: Jews must do more to put Iran on the agenda
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/880388.html Once again Israel uses the world's Jewish people to serve its goal of tricking other nations into attacking Israel's enemies.
Personally, I think this is just more pro-war propaganda, and "Al Qaeda" is just a bunch of spies playing at terrorists to scare you all into marching off to kill other people living over the oil.
But, let us for a moment stipulate that, yes indeed, Al Qaeda is back stronger than ever. What does that really mean?
It means that all the spying, the searches of our homes and computers, the constant TV cameras, the fondling of our wives and daughters at the airports, the wiretaps, the reading of our emails, the torture ... HAVE ALL FAILED. So, it's either Complicity or Incompetence for the Bush/PNAC Regime.
None of it works. All that time and money has been a total waste. For all the suffering and inconvenience inflicted on the American people, Homeland Security failed.
This will be all the more true if there is a new terror attack. It will mean that all those government officials who promised us safety if would but lay our entire lives bare before them lied to us. It will mean that there really isn't anything to be gained by going along with the repression any more, indeed to even listen to them will be totally pointless. It means that all the fondling of our wives and daughters at the airport was just that; a bunch of perverts waving a badge to get their jollies with their machines that look at you without your clothes on.
There is one and only one way to end terrorism, and that is to stop screwing around with other peoples' countries. When you stop screwing around with other peoples countries, the terrorists will go home. and when you start finding and hanging the spies for foreign government pretending to be terrorists to trick you into war on that foreign government's enemies, we will have peace and freedom.
The Phony (Mossad) Al Qaeda Cell in Palestine
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fakealqaeda.html Of course this is planned, as (on top of plans already laid to seize even more dictatorial control in such an event) Bush/PNAC have already signalled that such an attack will immediately be blamed on Iran (with or without evidence), and this will enable the planned US/Israeli attack on the country. In itself, this is an interesting policy development, virtually ignored by the media, and was necessitated after the world as a whole soundly rejected the "Iraq Treatment" intended to build support for this illegal Act of Aggression.
But this is an interesting proposition itself, because another attack would only expose the futility and failure of the so-called "war on terror", and the incompetence and inability of this Regime (or lack of desire) to protect its own.
Israeli Military Preps For Next War
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?5522S Israel's Next War
by Uri Avnery
www.antiwar.com/avnery/?articleid=10994
Neo-Fascists Finalize Plans For War
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?5417S Sheehan: Distinct Chance Of Staged Attack, Martial Law
http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=3746 The new drumbeat on Iran
The Bush team's latest rationale for bombing Iran is even lamer than all the previous ones. But hey, Joe Lieberman buys it. Comforted?
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/stephen_kinzer/2007/07/the_new_drumbeat_on_iran.html 
