Panicked over plummeting poll numbers for President Bush, the White House has come up with a new strategy for winning re-election. They can’t win on the economy. They can’t win on health care, education or the environment. They can’t win on Iraq. So they’re trying to scare people into voting for George Bush.
Enter John Ashcroft – Mr. Doom and Gloom, himself – with another of his now-familiar warnings about terrorists about to strike the United States. According to Ashcroft, seven members of al-Qaida are at loose somewhere inside the country. They intend to “hit the United States hard.” Their plans are 70 to 90 percent complete. Their targets are this summer’s big events: Georgia’s G-8 summit next month; Boston’s Democratic Convention in July; and New York’s Republican Convention in August.
Are you scared yet?
Don’t be. Remember? We’ve seen this act before. Ashcroft pulled the same stunt last July 4, last Christmas and just before the Super Bowl. On different occasions, he’s warned of imminent attacks against banks, shopping malls, international airlines and nuclear power plants. And nothing happened.
Ashcroft, in fact, cried “Wolf” so often, on so little evidence, that people stopped taking him seriously. And nobody should take him seriously this time either. His latest warnings have nothing to do with terrorism. They’re all about politics.
Consider the flimsiness of Ashcroft’s latest case. The names of six of the seven al-Qaida suspects he trumpeted as “about to strike the United States” were first announced by the Justice Department months ago. And Justice Department officials admitted to the New York Times they had no reason to believe any of the suspects was actually in the country.
Is there new intelligence about an imminent terrorist attack? Again, not according to the Bush administration itself. Explaining why, in light of his dire warning, Ashcroft did not raise the terrorist threat advisery from yellow to orange, one administration official told the Times:
There’s no real new intelligence, and a lot of this has been out there already. There really is no significant change that would require us to change the alert level of the country.
Nor were members of Congress given any information about a possible strike against the United States.
No new intelligence? No specific information? No new suspects? So why did Ashcroft bother issuing his big terror alert? Two reasons: to cover his own butt and to try to save George Bush’s political career.
Ashcroft’s terror alert is, first of all, nothing but a giant CYA. Before 9-11, everybody was asleep at the switch. The CIA ignored direct warnings that terrorists were planning to fly planes into American buildings. The FBI failed to investigate why so many young Muslims were suddenly taking flying lessons. President Bush did nothing when told that al-Qaida was planning to hijack planes inside the United States.
Rather than hold anyone responsible for those failures, the administration’s response is to trot out John Ashcroft every six months with a new terrorism alert. That way, whatever happens, they can never again be accused of being caught flat-footed.
But mainly, Ashcroft’s announcement was a desperate attempt to rescue a sinking Bush campaign. It’s timing was no accident. After months of bad news from Iraq, Bush’s approval ratings are at an all-time low. He loses to John Kerry in every nationwide poll. So Karl Rove gave orders to John Ashcroft: Quick! Change the subject! Get the spotlight off Iraq and onto the war on terror.
Unfortunately for President Bush, it just won’t work. Nobody believes Ashcroft anymore. And everybody sees through one more cynical attempt by this administration to use the threat of terrorism as a political scare tactic, turning the Homeland Security Agency into little more than a photo opportunity to promote George Bush’s re-election.
To date, the only action taken by Homeland Security is forcing long lines at airports – as if terrorists are dumb enough to try the same thing twice. There are no new protections in place for ports, refineries, chemical or nuclear power plants, shopping malls, sport stadiums or other areas of vulnerability. And instead of helping first responders, the administration’s current budget cuts aid to state and local law enforcement by 32 percent.
It’s time for this administration to stop talking about terrorism and start doing something about it. We don’t need any more empty warnings. We need action.
