Saturday, April 16, 2005
Fraidy Cats
The Bush Administration is running scared. No, not from the recent global terrorism report that shows terrorist attacks are on the rise but from the fact that such information might actually get out to the American people. God forbid that people be informed! So what do they do? They eliminate a government report that they have relied on for 19 years. No news is good news, right?
Check out this Knight Ridder article:
"The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered."
Where to begin:
1) the Bush admin. is losing the war against terror, and these 2004 statistics "raise disturbing questions about the Bush administration's frequent claims of progress in the war against terrorism."
2) the Bush administration's attempt to eliminate this report is another attempt to try to limit the free flow of information. CIA analyst and State Dept. terrorism expert Larry Johnson stated that "Instead of dealing with the facts and dealing with them in an intelligent fashion, they try to hide their facts from the American public."
So, to sum up, how should a President react to the news that terrorist attacks are as high as they have been in 20 years? Put more funds into homeland security? Secure our borders and ports? Work to create an international coalition to fight terrorism? Wrong, wrong, wrong. In this administration, the correct answer would be to play politics and "avoid releasing statistics that would contradict the administration's claims that it's winning the war against terrorism." See, Bush doesn't care about defeating terrorism, just the illusion of defeating terrorism. Feel safer? With head-in-the-sand responses like this one, even yellow dogs are turning into fraidy cats.
KR Washington Bureau | 04/15/2005 | Bush administration eliminating 19-year-old international terrorism report
Check out this Knight Ridder article:
"The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered."
Where to begin:
1) the Bush admin. is losing the war against terror, and these 2004 statistics "raise disturbing questions about the Bush administration's frequent claims of progress in the war against terrorism."
2) the Bush administration's attempt to eliminate this report is another attempt to try to limit the free flow of information. CIA analyst and State Dept. terrorism expert Larry Johnson stated that "Instead of dealing with the facts and dealing with them in an intelligent fashion, they try to hide their facts from the American public."
So, to sum up, how should a President react to the news that terrorist attacks are as high as they have been in 20 years? Put more funds into homeland security? Secure our borders and ports? Work to create an international coalition to fight terrorism? Wrong, wrong, wrong. In this administration, the correct answer would be to play politics and "avoid releasing statistics that would contradict the administration's claims that it's winning the war against terrorism." See, Bush doesn't care about defeating terrorism, just the illusion of defeating terrorism. Feel safer? With head-in-the-sand responses like this one, even yellow dogs are turning into fraidy cats.
KR Washington Bureau | 04/15/2005 | Bush administration eliminating 19-year-old international terrorism report
