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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> hckiely
[mailto:hckiely@comcast.net] <br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Sunday, August 13, 2006 4:25
PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> Undisclosed-Recipient:;<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Wm.Rivers Pitt: THE
FRIGHTENED</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> <strong><b><font
face="Times New Roman">The Frightened</font></b></strong><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><br>
</span></b> By William Rivers Pitt<br>
t r u t h o u t | Perspective<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Sunday
13 August 2006<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> It
would have been easy enough, at first blush, to mistake the GOP's reaction to
the foiled bombing plot in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:City>
as one of joy. The Republicans were, to be sure, pleased enough with the turn
of events, simply because the story of narrowly-avoided disaster took everyone's
eyes off Iraq and the diplomatic catastrophe unfolding in Lebanon. Yet their
joyful reaction masked a deep sense of unease that verges on desperation. The
midterm elections are looming, and the well of issues the GOP can draw from
to save their majority status is just about empty.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> It
has been widely reported that the White House knew arrests by British
authorities of individuals involved in the alleged bombing plot were coming
days before they happened. Such is the advantage of being the party in power;
it allows one to see over the horizon and prepare a political response. Hours
after Ned Lamont defeated Joe Lieberman in the <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Connecticut</st1:place></st1:State> primary, Vice President Cheney
described Lamont as being the candidate preferred by "al Qaeda
types." This kind of rhetoric becomes all the more loaded when stories
of plots to use liquid explosives against nine commercial airliners share the
front pages, and the timing is singular.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> It
didn't end there. Republican Senator Mike DeWine of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Ohio</st1:place></st1:State>, facing a stiff challenge from
Democrat Sherrod Brown, cashed in on the bomb plot to paint his opponent as
soft on national defense. Former <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New
York City</st1:place></st1:City> mayor Rudy Giuliani attempted, quite
literally, to cash in on the story as well. "In the middle of a war on
terror," wrote Giuliani in a widely distributed fundraising letter,
"we need to remain focused on furthering Republican ideas more than ever
before."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> "Weeks
before September 11th, this is going to play big," an anonymous White
House official was quoted as saying. There it is, in a nutshell.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> One
might indeed think that the Republican Party was thrilled at the prospect of
nine commercial airliners blowing up over the <st1:place w:st="on">Atlantic
Ocean</st1:place>, given the broad-spectrum reaction by the GOP to the news.
In truth, however, they are scrambling to manufacture the one element that
has served them over these past five years: fear. They cannot stand on their
record; their rhetoric has grown bone-thin, and so they are pulling that
hoary old club out of the bag one more time.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> It
used to be effective. Whenever the GOP sought to frighten the populace into
voting against their own best interests over these last years, the Democrats
all too often would curl up into a ball and go along for the ride. This
appears to be changing. A concerted assault by the Democrats on the record of
this administration and its congressional Republican cohorts has been put
forth. Notes are being sounded that have been sorely lacking. "If the
Republican Party thinks that this is going to be a good political issue for
them, they're mistaken," said Senator Charles Schumer of the thwarted
bomb plot. "We are going to answer them immediately."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> "During
the 2002 and 2004 elections," wrote Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid in
an email to supporters and activists, "Republicans tried to sow fear in
the American public by claiming that they were the only ones who could keep <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> safe.
This from the same crowd that has driven <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> to the brink of disaster,
left Osama bin Laden on the loose to attack again, and continues to ignore
our security needs at home. Ask any foreign policy pro, and they'll tell you
we're less safe now than we were five years ago."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> "Why
can't the Republican party put the safety of American citizens first?"
asked Congressman John Conyers Jr. on his blog. "Why do Republicans
first think of political advantage when our nation is at risk? It's time for
leadership that will boldly fight terrorism and bolster our homeland security
instead of promoting fear as a political prop."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Revealing
details on the Bush administration's woeful record on national defense have
been coming to light. ABC News reported that the General Accounting Office
warned, back in 2005, that no precautions were being taken by the
Transportation Safety Administration to detect elements of liquid explosives
- the very weapon the plotters in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region> allegedly intended to use
- being brought aboard airplanes. The FBI and the Department of Homeland
Security followed up with their own warnings about this exact threat. The
Bush administration did nothing to respond to these warnings, and is now
rolling out the old "no-one-could-have-anticipated" excuse for
their failure to anticipate such a threat. More recently, the White House
attempted to strip $6 million in funding for such explosives-detection
technologies out of the Homeland Security budget, a move that was stopped by
Congress.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> The
GOP hope that their scare tactics will distract the American public from the
mess in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is almost certainly doomed to failure. Violence in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> escalates by the day, and
our own generals are publicly debating the likelihood of a full-scale civil
war. Billions of dollars have been wasted on this adventure, money that could
have been used for more pressing national security needs. Worse, our
relationship with the international community is almost completely broken. We
can no longer count on the cooperation of the world to assist us in stopping
future attacks. We've got <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
whose security services shame ours, and that's about it.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Congressman
Conyers has delivered <a
href="http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/iraqrept2.html" target="_blank">a
scathingly detailed report</a> on the lies and machinations that led us into <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>. This
report, above all else, is the basis for the GOP's fears. If their scare
tactics fail to motivate the voters in November, they may well lose control
of the House of Representatives. Should this happen, Conyers will assume the
chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee, and his report will become the hood
ornament on an investigation into the myriad failures, lies and manipulations
that have sent 2,600 American soldiers into early graves.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> The
Bush administration and the GOP have spent the last year making political hay
by being the frighteners in chief. Today, those same tactics carry a note of
hysteria. They have nothing else to run on. They have become the frightened.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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