Flat as a Board
August 12, 2004
This week’s top news headline might as well have read Dr. Mario Nominated for Pulitzer. The media’s self-inflicted confusion over the worth of “dated” al-Qaeda intelligence data leaves me with one of only two impressions about journalists: (1) the greatest intellectual challenge they ever faced was playing Dr. Mario through a Clearasil-smeared Game Boy screen or (2) the primary qualification for a journalism degree is Severe Stage Alzheimer's disease. If critical thinking could be measured like a brain wave...you might as well pull the plug on journalists.
Immediately after the latest elevation of the terrorist threat level, the New York Times started whining. It seems that the Times found the Bush administration’s concern suspect because, “Much of the information that led the authorities to raise the terror alert...was three or four years old”. The Times, Reuters, AP, Washington Post...all the usual suspects hinted at Bush playing politics because “...they had not yet found concrete evidence that a terrorist plot or preparatory surveillance operations were still under way.” There is also a tooth fairy.
Yet, in 2002, the NYT’s (with a finger in the President’s nose) was gloating that, “The United States intelligence community was told in 1998 that Arab terrorists were planning to fly a bomb-laden plane into the World Trade Center, but the F.B.I. and the Federal Aviation Administration did not take the threat seriously.” Oh, come on, by September 11, 2001, that 1998 information was “three or four years old”.
If the media can’t make-up its mind concerning the value of information that’s “three or four years old”, then they should actually do what they keep pretending they have done...read the 9/11 Commission’s report. Or maybe they could just read their own previous editions.
On page 2 of the Commission’s Staff Statement No. 16, it’s noted that “In early 1999, Bin Ladin summoned KSM (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) to Kandahar to tell him that his proposal to use aircraft as weapons now had al Qaeda’s full support.” More specifically, “KSM met again with Bin Ladin and Atef at Kandahar in the spring of 1999 to develop an initial list of targets. The list included...the Pentagon...and the World Trade Center”. But hell, by September 11, 2001 that info would have been “three or four years old”. Was it “still under way”?
Skeptically, the AP reported on August 7, 2004 that “An al-Qaida terror suspect detained in England...claimed he has associates in America, possibly in California.” Two of the 19 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar (arriving in LA on January 15, 2000), frolicked in California more than a 1 ½ years before they met their 72 virgins. Pages 4 – 5 of the Commission’s report note that, “Much remains unknown about their activities and associates while in Los Angeles and our investigation of this period of the conspiracy is continuing.” Oh, come on, this is 2004...how could there be a connection to info that is “three or four years old”.
We won’t even bother to worry about Hani Hanjour, another 9/11 hijacker, who had been in the United States on and off since October 1991. By September 11th, that news would have been almost 10 years old!
It’s funny how liberal journalists keep accusing the President of a cowboy mentality while all they can do is “think from the hip”. The world of 21st century terrorism is a non-linear environment that requires parabolic analysis. Journalists are linear thinkers who report with two-dimensional brains. On a good day, they might be able to imagine a third dimension (if the depth ever became a concern).
Sometimes, even the 9/11 Commission falls prey to a two dimensional mentality. The Commission reported that, “To date, the U.S. government has not been able to determine the origin of the money used for the 9/11 attacks...but from where KSM obtained the money...is of little practical significance.” In its final report, the Commission was certain of one thing, “"No persuasive evidence exists that al-Qaida ... funded itself through trafficking in diamonds from African states engaged in civil wars."
Even though it’s a near certainty that al-Qaeda protected a bulk of its pre-9/11 assets through massive purchases of African diamonds, the AP assures us that there is no “direct proof that al-Qaida used diamond profits to fund the Sept. 11 attacks”. Maybe the specific dollars they used to fund the September 11th attacks came from casino slot winnings or even a POWERBALL hit. Or maybe they borrowed against their pension plan.
Of course the money matters and, of course they used diamond profits to fund September 11th...of course you might have to be able to think deeper than the screen of a Game Boy to figure this out.
First of all, with no money, there would be no terrorism. The ability to successfully plan and execute terrorist missions requires funding. There is the flippant response that 9/11 ONLY cost $500,000.00. Well, the beach home I want ONLY costs $500,000.00, but with no $500K...no beach home. Get it?
And what do these idiots at the AP think...that al-Qaeda color codes its assets? OK, this is a diamond dollar and diamond dollars are red money...we will only use yellow dollars for September 11th and yellow dollars come from playing the numbers. Hello...dollars are fungible. It doesn’t matter which dollar you take out of your pocket, it only matters how many dollars you have in your pocket. What kind of a pinhead would draw a distinction between “this dollar and that dollar” when it came to funding September 11th!
Listening to the pedantic drivel coming from the media is really getting to be tiresome. If I wanted to challenge myself with the level of critical thinking displayed by the media in its reporting on the war on terrorism...I could just stare at a flat board all day.
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