You Should Be Proud of Yourself

As part of their current farewell tour, the White House recently produced a list of potential "terrorist" attacks in the United States which were "prevented" by the Bush administration since September 11, 2001. That list includes:

• A plot to destroy fuel tanks and a fuel pipeline at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. NOTE: This particular plan by unimpressive suspects did not target any airplanes or passenger terminals or airplanes, only jet fuel. And, according to Richard Kuprewicz, an independent energy consultant with more than thirty years of experience in working with pipeline operators, destroying fuel tanks and pipelines would not cause the airport to be closed for days on end. To quote Kuprewicz, "Jet fuel is flammable and can be made to explode but it's difficult".
• A plan to destroy airplanes destined for the East Coast. NOTE: At the insistence of the Bush administration, British authorities arrested more than twenty individuals. However, numerous experts agreed that those arrested would have been unable to mix the planned liquid explosives on an airplane. Craig Murray, the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, summarized the situation: "None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports."
• A plot to destroy the U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest building on the West Coast. NOTE: Officials in Los Angeles determined that various men had been selected and money had been designated for the mission. However, once al-Qaeda operatives were arrested in Indonesia and other parts of the world, this specific plot did not progress beyond the initial planning stages.
• An attempt to kill soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey. NOTE: One anonymous law enforcement officer informed CNN that that the six arrested suspects were "hardly hard core terrorists". Another source was quoted by CNN as saying that these individuals are "not the type that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up". Apparently these threats to the world as we know it took their video plan for attacking the base to a local electronics store in order to burn DVDs and one of the suspects asked a police officer in Philadelphia about obtaining maps of Fort Dix. The five-member group was fittingly described by "The Washington Post" as "bungling".
• A plan to attack a shopping mall in Rockford, IL by detonating grenades in garbage cans. NOTE: Sentenced to thirty-five years in prison, Derrick Shareef was acting alone, had no ties to any terrorist organization and, despite his supposed scheme, had not acquired any grenades.
• A plot to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago. NOTE: A senior federal law enforcement officer declared that the arrested suspects had "aspirations" but "no means" to attack the Sears Tower or any other buildings. A second senior officer asserted that "There was no threat at all".

As you can see, the Bush administration really had to go out of their way to stop these extremely dangerous and intelligent criminals. Ironically (but not surprisingly), the White House did not bother to mention the terrorist attack that they completely failed in preventing. Need a reminder? It was SEPTEMBER 11TH!!! On August 6th (just over a month before that fateful day), Mr. Bush receives a daily briefing titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US". Despite this obviously important information, the Bush administration essentially does nothing. The rest is history.