Nothing to Fear?
BY JAMES TARANTO
Best of the Web Today
Thursday, February 9, 2006
In a speech this morning before the National Guard Association of the United States, President Bush described a terror plot the government thwarted. This is from the White House transcript, including the "sic" and the footnote:
<<< In the weeks after September the 11th, while Americans were still recovering from an unprecedented strike on our homeland, al Qaeda was already busy planning its next attack. We now know that in October 2001, Khalid Shaykh Muhammad -- the mastermind of the September the 11th attacks -- had already set in motion a plan to have terrorist operatives hijack an airplane using shoe bombs to breach the cockpit door, and fly the plane into the tallest building on the West Coast. We believe the intended target was Liberty [sic] Tower in Los Angeles, California.*
Rather than use Arab hijackers as he had on September the 11th, Khalid Shaykh Muhammad sought out young men from Southeast Asia -- whom he believed would not arouse as much suspicion. To help carry out this plan, he tapped a terrorist named Hambali, one of the leaders of an al Qaeda affiliated group in Southeast Asia called "J-I." JI terrorists were responsible for a series of deadly attacks in Southeast Asia, and members of the group had trained with al Qaeda. Hambali recruited several key operatives who had been training in Afghanistan. Once the operatives were recruited, they met with Osama bin Laden, and then began preparations for the West Coast attack.
Their plot was derailed in early 2002 when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al Qaeda operative. Subsequent debriefings and other intelligence operations made clear the intended target, and how al Qaeda hoped to execute it. This critical intelligence helped other allies capture the ringleaders and other known operatives who had been recruited for this plot. The West Coast plot had been thwarted. Our efforts did not end there. In the summer of 2003, our partners in Southeast Asia conducted another successful manhunt that led to the capture of the terrorist Hambali. . . .
* The believed target was *Library* Tower in Los Angeles, California. >>>
Just to confuse matters further, the Associated Press reports the Library Tower is now known as the U.S. Bank Tower.
"As the West Coast plot shows," the president
continued, "in the war on terror we face a relentless and
determined enemy that operates in many nations."
Does Hillary Clinton** disagree?
The reason we ask is this Associated Press dispatch:
<<< Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday accused Republicans of "playing the fear card" of terrorism to win elections and said Democrats cannot keep quiet if they want to win in November.
The New York Democrat, facing re-election this year and considered a potential White House candidate in 2008, said Republicans won the past two elections on the issue of national security and "they're doing it to us again."
She said a speech by presidential adviser Karl Rove two weeks ago showed the GOP election message is: "All we've got is fear and we're going to keep playing the fear card." >>>
Does Mrs. Clinton--who after all represents the state where these same terrorists murdered some 2,800 people a few months after she took office--really think that terrorism isn't something to fear?
** New York's junior senator, who speaks in even tones and conveys her displeasure with temperate phrases (except when she's really angry).
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