Orange alert in US—terrorizing the American public again

[RBHam]

By Bill Vann
24 December 2003

Excerpt:
Ridge’s justification for the raised threat level at a Monday news conference bordered on the incoherent. Asked to square the supposedly heightened danger of an attack on the scale of 9/11 with the Bush administration’s claims that it has “decapitated” the Al Qaeda terrorist network, Ridge responded: “But make no mistake about it, the president has said this is—we have to be into this—we are in this for the long term, that in spite of the extraordinary success of the military and the CIA, the cooperation with our allies, the apprehension or death of a lot of the principals and the freezing the assets, this is still an international war, international terrorist cells including Al Qaeda, and the fact that we are picking up information that results in us going to Orange, I think, is a reflection of increased capacity, probably on our side, not necessarily greater ability on theirs.”

Most striking of all is the media’s reaction to the raising of the terrorism alert. Both the broadcast news networks and the major US dailies have marched in lockstep with the administration’s terror scare, treating the change in the color-coded alert system with less critical objectivity than they would a weather forecast.

Press reports have accepted at face value the Bush administration’s claims—entirely unsubstantiated—that the US is facing catastrophic attacks, while engaging in civic boosterism, replete with upbeat reports about Americans confronted with disaster “taking it in their stride” and going about their holiday merriment.

The Washington Post published an editorial Tuesday entitled simply “Orange Alert” that praised Ridge for “doing a much better job of giving details about the nature and source of the threat” than on three previous occasions this year when the Bush administration announced the raising of the threat level. “Mr. Ridge was right to give out as many details as possible,” the editorial continued. “Naming times and places gives law enforcement personnel as well as ordinary people a clearer sense of what they ought to be doing.”

One is tempted to ask: what planet are the Post editors living on? No verifiable information has been given to justify the elevated alert. Indeed, an FBI alert issued on the eve of the Homeland Security announcement declared, “e have no information on the possible operatives, target, timing or method of a possible attack.”

more...

[Hippo_Tron]

1. Tom Ridge needs to stop accidently putting his foot...

On that orange button on the terror alert control pannel on his desk.

[G_j]

13. Ridge is a RW flake

and not the brightest bulb on the tree.
He actually believed that the people protesting the last GOP convention in Philly were funded from overseas by "communists" ...makes me feel real secure... :eyes:

[Newsjock]

2. Here's a link

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/terr-d24.shtml

[RBHam]

3. thanks

d-oh! i usually don't forget that.

[WindRavenX]

4. It's a bloody crime what they are doing to the public

They are creating a nation of paranoid, scared citizens. They are the terrorists....
Seriously, the very nature of what they are doing fits the description of TERRORISM itself!
Oh, irony! How it slays me...

[Bandit]

8. It's okay we all have our pistols to comfort us

:shrug:

[Skidmore]

5. To quote my son-in-law responding to the news broadcast

which was on when he came in the kitchen door: "Orange alert, Osama tapes, earthquakes, mad cow disease, Kobe, Michael Jackson, Malvo...Merry Effin' Christmas. Thank you, George Bush."

[Mikimouse]

6. Snarf! I can see the truth in this...

“But make no mistake about it, the president has said this is—we have to be into this—we are in this for the long term ('cause everything else we touch turns to shit), that in spite of the extraordinary success of the military, fighting against a nation we first made completely sure was disarmed, and the CIA which organization turned turtle for the * administration even after the disclosure of the name of one of their operatives, the cooperation with our allies (those mighty fighting forces of Hungary, Poland and others), the apprehension or death of a lot of the principals (not to mention the terrorist children) and the freezing the assets (with, of course, the exception of the Saudis'), this is still an international war (undeclared though it may be, it still looks good in the press), international terrorist cells including Al Qaeda, and the fact that we are picking up information (translation: *'s poll numbers didn't jump like a rabbit when we acquired Hussein from he Kurds) that results in us going to Orange, I think, is a reflection of increased capacity (but certainly not in the number of functioning brain cells in the administration), probably on our side, not necessarily greater ability on theirs.”

[RBHam]

7. kick

"cry wolf!"

[G_j]

9. as someone pointed out in another thread,

this is all to get us used to living in a police state.

[RBHam]

10. Conditioning

You are correct...

Polls have shown that the Murican people are more than willing to sacrifice liberty for security.

[G_j]

12. I wish it was all just

a bad dream, but the jaws are closing!!
serious, serious stuff going down.

[GURUving]

11. I don't know a single person who has given half a damn

about the increasing alert status. Not one, and I generally, in the course of a day, have conversations with many people.

I'm not flying this holiday, but would bet there are plenty of folks in the airports grumbling about this. The states becoming increasingly bankrupted by this would undoubtedly cause some grumbling in the state houses also.