Bush Foils Terrorists with Bare Hands? Not Quite...
Earlier today, President Bush announced that his administration successfully foiled a terrorist plot against the tallest building in Los Angeles, the Library (or Liberty as the President pronounced it) Tower now known as the U.S. Bank Tower. This round building dominates the view of the downtown skyline that I see as I drive to and from work.
As I looked up at it on my way home from work tonight, I listened to Mayor Villaraigosa say that he was blind-sided by this news and knew nothing of this event other than what was reported in the LA Times last year.
So what is all the fuss about?
Right after I heard about Bush's pronouncement this morning, Rudi sent me a link to the most important story of the day. I immediately shared this with everyone I know and Jeremy wisely went to check CNN to see what the headline position was. Instead, he was greeted with a picture of the LA skyline with a headline about the foiled terror plot.
Fortunately, by the end of the day the Libby story made it to the top of CNN's headline list.
However, the controversy about the LA terror plot doesn't stop there. The President claimed that by October, 2002, Khalid Shaykh Muhammad "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." This is a little bizarre because explosions and planes don't get along very well. As Jeremy pointed out, a shoe bomb would likely blow a hole in the side of an airplane and holes don't make for good flying.
Regardless, on Which Way LA tonight, then Mayor Jim Hahn said that he knew nothing about the plot because the administration didn't know anything about it until mid-2003 at the earliest. He found about it from press reports at the time that reinforced the regions assumption they were being targeted. Hmmm... LA is the second largest city in the country, it makes sense to be cautious. Mayor Hahn was quite clear that the feds didn't contact him about this threat because there was no clear threat to report.
Not only did Mayor Hahn not know about the program Mayor Villaraigosa didn't know about today's announcement and has been rebuffed by the White House every time he has attempted to arrange to meet with the White House about protecting Los Angeles from future attacks.
The beauty of the whole thing is that the press is covering this whole story as an attempt to lend aid to the NSA spying program, a program that had nothing to do with acquiring the ambiguous evidence about this threat. The suspected terrorists were apprehended by an undisclosed Asian country after they were able to meet with Osama bin Laden, according to the President. Perhaps the question we should all be asking is how did would-be terrorists get to meet with Osama bin Laden after September 11 when he was ostensibly the most hunted man in the world? Maybe a reporter should ask the President this the next time he stands up and declares victory.
Who is this guy?
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