Posted on 05/20/2004 11:29:27 PM PDT by kattracks
Reporters have spent the last six months suggesting that President Bush missed clear evidence that the 9/11 attacks were coming.
But now that new evidence is mounting that al Qaida is preparing a spectacular chemical weapons strike on the U.S., the news is being greeted with yawns in newsrooms across America, with reporters obsessing instead the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
Since Monday, when weapons of mass destruction in the form of Sarin gas were discovered in Iraq, there have been 525 media reports on the development, a Lexis Nexis search shows.
In the same four day period, however, the Abu Ghraib scandal has been the subject of 2,342 news reports - despite the fact that the story is three weeks old with no significant new developments driving the coverage.
Meanwhile, evidence that America is being targeted for an even more deadly strike than on 9/11 mounts day after day:
* An FBI terror alert issued Thursday warns police to look for obvious signs of trouble people wearing heavy, bulky jackets on warm days, smelling of chemicals, trailing wires from their jackets.
* Five weeks ago Jordanian authorities foiled an al Qaida plot to use three tanker trucks in a chemical weapons attack in Amman that could have killed 80,000 people, according to experts.
* On April 8 an empty 92,000 gallon tanker truck was stolen from a Pensauken, N.J. parking lot and has been missing ever since.
* That same week, five empty suitcases were discovered in New York's subway system in what intelligence experts believe was a dress rehearsal for a Madrid-style railway attack on the U.S.
* Al Qaida WMD specialist Abu Musab al Zarqawi, ringleader of the Jordan plot, has grown increasingly deadly in the last few months. He's recently claimed credit for the Madrid train bombings, the beheading of Daniel Berg and Tuesday's assassination of the head of the Iraqi Governing Council, Izzadine Saleem
* Zarqawi is also believed to have been behind an August truck bomb attack on the U.N.'s headquarters in Baghdad, killing 23 people, a car bombing in Najaf that killed more than 85, and a truck bombing of Italy's paramilitary police headquarters in southern city of Nasiriyah that killed more than 30.
CNN is just now announcing this.
When most American's are in bed.
They should also warn of backpacks and large shopping bags.
Either we're in bed or we should be.
We have to look out for pregnant women as well as people wearing coats in warm weather or sloppy plump people with wires hanging out of their clothes. I'd be suspicous of all of them except the pregnant women.
If they're looking out for everybody, they're doing their job. Ensuring our safety, while nabbing the bad guys.
Ah, and even then you'd have to wonder. The faux pregnancy angle has been used by both Palestinian and Iraqi suicide bombers. During summer months, however, a real belly versus a strap-on belt bomb should be easier to spot than during heavy coat season. (I've been near-term during the hot summer months in two of my three pregnancies...believe me, the fewer and lighter the clothes, the happier the expectant mother-to-be. So an apparently pregnant woman wearing a coat in July would definitely catch my attention.)
I was 8 months pregnant with my one and only in August in Houston, Texas, the humidity capitol of Texas. (It's NOT a dry heat!) No way would I have survived walking out the front door in any type of coat. However, the news isn't reporting pregnant women in coats, just pregnant women in general.
I'll definitely keep my eyes open though for any pregnant women here in smalltown, Oklahoma.
There was another article posted today about the finding of an infrared device painted black and carefully tucked into the rail bed on one of the Philly commuter lines. It was thought that the device was meant to operate as a triggering device when the beam was tripped by the passage of a train.
None of this matters.
The media wants a terror attack. The media wants America to lose. The media wants Americans killed.
They so badly want Bush defeated they would be happy to see all of the above if they can lay blame at Bush's door.
"They should also warn of backpacks and large shopping bags."
Then they should just stop and search everyone. I am a train commuter and some 70% of the commuters use backpacks, myself included (it's so much easier and more practical than carrying a briefcase) and every shopper has a large shopping bag. No one would ever make it to work on time.
"None of this matters. The media wants a terror attack. The media wants America to lose. The media wants Americans killed. They so badly want Bush defeated they would be happy to see all of the above if they can lay blame at Bush's door."
It's appalling, but nonetheless true.
Disturbing developments. The media could indeed help us more by encouraging vigilance and providing information on how to respond if we are in the vicinity of an attack. I'm grateful for the internet. Without it, I'd be very uninformed. I just hope the internet is able to withstand and recover from the inevitable attacks on service.
The media should be reporting these events taking place
across this country. I'm sick of Abu Ghraib. It is the
media's job to keep Americans informed so if they do not
give these significant finds the same attention they grave
to prisoners wearing panties on there heads, then they
will have the blood of Americans on there hands along
with the terrorists.
IT WON'T BE BUSH'S FAULT
Yup
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