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June 23, 2006

Sears Tower Terrorists: Did You Know?

BuzzFlash has put together a fascinating analysis of today's announcement that seven terrorist plotting to destroy the Sears Tower had been captured by the Bush Administration. (For links to their sources, go to the analysis itself.)

Have you heard about this yet? And did you know these facts?:

- The group "never met Bin Laden or had any contact with the terror kingpin's henchmen… In fact, they had no connection to any known terrorist organization.
- "No bomb making materials were found in the raids."
- The "only overt acts described in the indictments were swearing oaths of allegiance to Al Qaeda and taking video footage of the F.B.I office."
- Six of the seven men indicted "are described only as driving (the leader) or the informer places or as attending meetings between the two."
- They "only devised a plot on paper."
- Chicago Police are saying there was "No credible threat… They had no capability to (destroy the Sears tower). They never got to that point – or could have."
- A Sears Tower executive said, "Law enforcement continues to tell us that they have never found evidence of a credible terrorism threat against Sears Tower that has gone beyond criminal discussions."
- A senior federal law-enforcement source says they had "no means" to attack the Sears Tower or other buildings. "There was no threat at all."
- The Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communication Executive Director said, "The plan developed in Florida was never an actual plan, and therefore, nobody was in danger."
- The suspects were largely American citizens, operating within our borders, and not even Arab.

Coming in the immediate aftermath of the announcement that WMDs had been found in Iraq (a bullshit story), this story struck me as very questionable. After learning of the above, I tend to agree with BuzzFlash's conclusions:

BuzzFlash is supportive of the FBI for arresting the group. We just don't think it is as important as Bush seems to want us to. The timing of the raid, given that there was no immediate operational threat, appears politically motivated. The Bush Administration wanted to scare Americans and tie the Iraq War to terror after a Senate debate on redeployment that very morning.

After listening to the breathless explanation by a rightie friend of the evidence presented on Sean Hannity's show yesterday for why the WMD find was so incredibly important (and repressing the urge to gag), I am convinced that all of this is being drummed up solely to comfort the increasingly restless right wing and get them back in the fold. Looks like good ol' Karl has found his sea legs again.

Posted by Becky at June 23, 2006 02:45 PM