Time reveals something disturbing about our country’s pursuit of terrorists

[kpete]

Time reveals something disturbing about our country’s pursuit of terrorists. While the President gets briefed on suspected Islamic terrorists, he doesn’t get briefed on suspected right wing terrorists.
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/04/29/two-wmd-terrorists-the-presidents-daily-briefing-and-lone-wolves/

..................

Thursday, Apr. 28, 2011
Cover Story: Is the FBI Up to the Job 10 Years After 9/11?
By Barton Gellman

..................

Harpham’s plot, if the allegations prove true, turned out to be the more advanced. He had built a powerful bomb and placed it, for maximum carnage, atop a metal bench with a brick wall behind it to focus the blast. The half-complete work of Aldawsari, an Arab whose jihadi aims fit the popular image of a terrorist, received far more public attention. More than a year ago, Mueller raised some eyebrows when he testified that “homegrown and lone-wolf extremists pose an equally serious threat.” But that message did not take root in the body politic or even in the national-security establishment. As the FBI chased the twin terrorist plots all through February, President Obama’s team heard daily reports about Aldawsari’s case but not Harpham’s. Some of Mueller’s lieutenants marveled at the contrast.

Domestic plots are not routinely included in the President’s daily briefing or the interagency threat matrix, an FBI official says, even though “the degree of harm is often greater” than in jihadi terrorist plots.

..................

MORE: http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,2067995,00.html

[Scuba]

1. Good question to ask by the White House Press Corp

[Kelvin Mace]

2. If you can call that self-fellating group of mongrels

a press corp, that would, indeed, be a great question to ask.

[librechik]

3. ever since Bush we've got everything back asswards

and not a clue how to set things right, apparently.

[indepat]

4. A seeming dichotomy to spend trillions of dollars keeping us safe from one breed of terrorists

while hardly bothering with a particularly virulent home-grown variety. :patriot:

[leveymg]

5. To talk about Right-wing terrorists, for the last President at least, would offend his base.

It doesn't get Congress to appropriate more money to the agency, also.