General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy do I find myself filled with skepticism at all these warnings about Al Kaida?
So this guy Al is going to kill us in our beds some time in August?
So we closed a lot of Middle Eastern embassies because Mr. Kaida might yell BOO!
Why do I think I've seen this movie before?
tridim
(45,358 posts)Time to move on stinky, Bush has been gone for almost 6 years.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)...while we're debating the worthiness of a massive surveillance program, that's just coincidence? I thought the NSA and the drones were killing AQ left and right.
tridim
(45,358 posts)That's how reality works.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)"We stopped them!"
"Was there ever any threat in the first place?"
"Of course! And we stopped them!"
"Can you show us any evidence?"
"Uh...umm...classified?"
tridim
(45,358 posts)Stinky The Clown
(67,697 posts)Neither are provable.
Nice try, Stewie. Time to move on.
it is completely relevant to your point. Your rock scared away all the tigers and kept us safe.
There were no tigers in the area, but so what, it justified the expense, right?
Oh well, you aren't allowed to know about the amount of tiger movement in your area, because that's classified.
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)I'm shocked, surprised and scared that terrorists are coming for us now that politicians are discussing defunding parts of the NSA.
OMG. We need them SO BADLY.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)The MIC has to justify its existence somehow, even if it means blatantly lying.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Indi Guy
(3,992 posts)...???
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)The people that matter need an image, a phantom, or an idea to show the suckers so they won't pay any attention to what's really going on.
BeyondGeography
(39,284 posts)Have you seen any color coding since 2009? Wouldn't surprise me if they had very legitimate reasons.
Stinky The Clown
(67,697 posts)Condition Goldfish was the lowest level.
The rest, in ascending order, were Dog, Cat, Lowland Gorilla, and Pterodactyl.
There was great controversy around whether dogs or cats were bigger badasses and no one could compromise so they scrapped the whole thing.
Then they were going to do a gang theme, but the same thing came up. Crypts or Bloods? Hells Angels, Pagans, or Warlocks? Again no agreement on biggest badasses.
Eventually they just gave up on thread level codes and went with the occasional All Threats Be Mine strategy we see today.
Obviously this whole post is stupid bullshit.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)data collecting they've spent billions on, never mind the 'warnings' to 'terrorists', what kind of strategy is that, and just go get them??
The NSA under attack for its practices.
A sudden warning about terrorists that might make us revise our thinking on the NSA.
Not going to work.
darkangel218
(13,985 posts)My thoughts exactly.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Stopped buying it when Bush did it, not going to start against just because Edward Snowden is a libertarian and a Democrat is in the White House.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)if the what is the NSA business, the who is not the general public; virtually nobody outside of policy/political nerds (like myself) are paying much attention to it.
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)Remember how the color coded alerts went on for a year and then stopped instantly after Bush was re-elected?
Aerows
(39,961 posts)is afraid of them getting defunded. No indeed. Not before the sequester wrestling. Why on earth would you fund SNAP or home heating assistance when there might be terrorists that will attack the US!? For GOD'S Sake think of the children of defense contractors!!!!
Warpy
(110,913 posts)Congress gets and Europeans often take, a whole month. Paris is generally closed for the month of August as anyone who can afford to get away does get away.
voteearlyvoteoften
(1,716 posts)tridim
(45,358 posts)kentuck
(110,950 posts)And everybody knows that when their religious holidays end, there is nothing they like better than to kill Americans in the name of Allah. They seem to hate us, for some reason or other?
Turborama
(22,109 posts)Eid is the post-Ramadan holiday that is about to start.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)and you can keep things "classified", why not make every wild claim in the book?
Rex
(65,616 posts)So that is pretty much an instant qualification imo.
quinnox
(20,600 posts)lot more of these terror alerts coming down the pike in the near future.
"Snowden is getting away!" Terror alert! That will keep them in line" "Good idea"
Or
"The people aren't buying into this wholesale NSA spying anymore."
"Terror alert them!"
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,355 posts)Not to say that I think we need to go back to peeing our pants about AQ but I would guess that the Administration is being more cautious not only after what happened in Libya on 9/11/12 but also the ridiculous sideshow Issa, et. al are STILL putting on about it, nearly a year later. Not to say that I think that the Administration should be worrying about that really either but if you give a Republican a bone..........
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)Ohio Joe
(21,656 posts)When bush used them, they were always vague... To stir up a general fear. This seems to be specific to embassy's... Not very useful for justfying spying on Americans.
RevStPatrick
(2,208 posts)Ramadan is over in a couple of days.
The Jihadists are coming back to work, all refreshed, and filled with the spirit of Allah.
They want to get an early start, the infidels being on vacation and unalert this weekend, it being August.
Seriously.
phleshdef
(11,936 posts)Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)Of course you do. The Republicans won't let you forget it. It also happened. Like, it wasn't manufactured. The outrage is, certainly, but it's an event that literally happened and that still is a cloud than hangs over the President's head. We already know embassies are constantly at risk in volatile regions (and if you think otherwise, you're stupid and daft to history - just check how many of our embassies have been attacked over the last few decades) and the last major one attacked resulted in four American deaths, so, is it really that big of a stretch to suggest there is a risk there?
I'm guessing we'll see a constant risk through August and September, especially with the anniversary of 9/11 coming up. As much as DUers would like to pretend al-Qaeda and terrorism doesn't exist, it does.
Cha
(295,929 posts)be getting any alerts because they don't trust anything.
Glad Pres Obama's in charge and not some anonymous posters on the internet.. yucking it up about alerts just because freaking bush did it to up his polls or whatever the fuck reason.. he had his orange red yellow shit going on. You know they didn't give crap.
If bushco had been paying attention 9/11 might not have happened.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)The feeling you've heard this Bull before."
I hadn't heard that we're all supposed to be fearing for our lives again and that the Boogieman had returned. Thanks for the update- I'll be sure to go hide in my custom bomb shelter ordered from Amazon during the Bush Admin.
TheKentuckian
(24,949 posts)The whole thing reeks of a scam. Hell, might be more truth to Truthers than many of us want to imagine.
The whole "Terror" deal could be substantially cooked up by the security apparatus. The ultimate ratfuck in pursuit of power and mountains of loot.
These are the same fuckers who we know have undermined democratic elections, sold drugs to fund weapons, unleashed fucking death squads on populations, cooked up trillion dollar wars, dump guns into Mexico (now on multiple occasions through multiple administrations), propped up more evil dictators than you can shake a stick at, and all kinds of extremely fucked up shit that I think is evidence enough that they are capable of anything at all.
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)made it all possible.
It's going to be a case of "See, we're keeping you SAFE!"
Turborama
(22,109 posts)But Americans abroad probably take it more seriously.
I live in a Muslim majority country and find these warnings worrisome.
BuelahWitch
(9,083 posts)Dick Cheney or Pappy Bush?