For nearly a week mainstream news outlets have been saturated with fear mongering over the Obama administration’s warning about a looming threat from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the terrorist group’s Yemeni branch. Lawmakers were told the threat was discovered thanks to controversial NSA surveillance programs. Coincidence?
As Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, “If we did not have these programs, then we simply would not be able to listen in on the bad guys.”
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham expressed similar sentiments, saying, “To the members of Congress who want to reform the NSA program, great. If you want to gut it, you make us much less safe, and you’re putting our nation at risk. We need to have policies in place that can deal with the threats that exist, and they are real, and they are growing.”
These comments came on top of nonstop media reports about an intercepted message between Al Qaeda operatives signaling a major attack. The threat is so serious, it prompted the state department on Sunday to shut down 22 U.S. embassies and consulates across North Africa and the middle east, several of which will remain closed until Saturday.
And just in case there were any doubts about how afraid we should be, lawmakers made the rounds on the Sunday morning news shows wetting their pants in utter panic. Agence France Presse summarized:
Representative Dutch Ruppersberger, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC’s “This Week” that Al-Qaeda’s “operatives are in place.”
He said the United States knows this “because we’ve received information that high level people from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are talking about a major attack and these are people in the high level.”
This is so serious he had to remind us that they’re “high level” twice!
ABC News cited an unnamed US official as saying there was concern that Al-Qaeda might deploy suicide attackers with surgically implanted bombs to evade security.
Yeah, because claims made by “unnamed US officials” have never led us astray (eye roll).
Representative Peter King, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the intelligence was specific “as to how enormous it was going to be, and also there’s certain dates were given.”
“And, you know, the assumption is that it’s probably most likely to happen in the Middle East at or about one of the embassies, but there’s no guarantee of that at all,” he said on the same ABC show.
“It could basically be in Europe, it could be in the United States, it could be a series of combined attacks,” he said.
It could be here, there or everywhere all at the same time! Run for your life!
Saxby Chambliss, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, likened it to the intelligence chatter that preceded the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington.
“What we have heard is some specifics on what’s intended to be done and some individuals who are making plans such as we saw before 9/11,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“Whether they’re going to be suicide deaths that are used or whether they’re planning on vehicle-born bombs being carried into an area, we don’t know,” he said.
To summarize, a bomb could go off anywhere at anytime because Al Qaeda, 9/11 and our freedoms.
The fear mongering continued on Monday, as reported by the Associated Press:
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday the briefings he has received “certainly emphasize these threats are specific and credible, equal if not more serious to the kind of chatter, as the intelligence called it, that was heard prior to 9/11.”
But he added: “The average American should continue to be alert and vigilant and cautious but certainly not unduly alarmed or panicky.” He spoke on MSNBC.
You get the picture. Be afraid.
The worst part about this latest threat is the mainstream media’s failure to question the legitimacy of the administration’s claims. As you can tell from the above excerpts, mainstream reporting of the very scary threat reads more like stenography than journalism (not that I expect anything else from the corporate media.)
I’m not doubting that intelligence analysts intercepted a message about an attack. That probably happens all all the time given that we’ve declared war on the entire world and regularly bomb “terrorists” in several countries, often maiming and killing innocent children. In this context, the desire for revenge is to be expected. But why publicize this threat so much? Why all the fear mongering?
Which brings us to how we learned about this latest attack. We’re told that intelligence analysts intercepted the message using NSA surveillance programs, the same programs that have come under increasing scrutiny following Edward Snowden’s leaks to the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald.
What a coincidence that that such a message is making headlines just as the country is debating the legal and ethical legitimacy of the NSA’s mass surveillance programs.
It’s no secret that when we’re scared, we easily give up our liberties for a perceived sense of safety. For proof, check out the Patriot Act in the aftermath of 9/11. I don’t think it’s far-fetched to question the timing of the administration’s ramped up fear mongering.
Of course, the only outlet that covered this aspect of the Al Qaeda attack is the Guardian:
Amie Stepanovich, a lawyer with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said: “The NSA’s choice to publish these threats at this time perpetuates a culture of fear and unquestioning deference to surveillance in the United States.”
News of the fresh terror alert came as Congress looked increasingly likely to pursue fresh attempts to limit the NSA’s domestic powers when it returns in September.
“The NSA takes in threat information every day. You have to ask, why now? What makes this information different?” added Stepanovich.
“Too much of what we hear from the government about surveillance is either speculation or sweeping assertions that lack corroboration. The question isn’t if these programs used by this NSA can find legitimate threats, it’s if the same threats couldn’t be discovered in a less invasive manner. This situation fails to justify the NSA’s unchecked access to our personal information.”
These are excellent questions. If only we could get the mainstream media to raise them.
The resurrection of the Al Qaeda threat also contributes to maintaining the state of perpetual was and militarism in the Middle East.
Also, do you see any irony with the US closing down embassies and consulates in Muslim countries due to terrorist threats yet we continue to stick our nose in events in Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and other countries? The US is despised in that part of the world yet we continue to immerse ourselves in those hornet’s nests?
We are lecturing Egypt on governing while at the same time, the US is headed toward a government shutdown, Congress can’t pass a budget, our debt continues to increase, and state legislatures in Republican states are working tirelessly to make it more difficult for the poor and minorities to vote. Who is the US to lecture countries with completely different histories and backgrounds on governing?
It sure looks like the manufacture of consent. The NSA is happy to fly under the radar but now the are in the spotlight anyway, they might as well put a positive spin on their activities. Note that there isn’t any collusion required. The corporate media just echos the talking points of the White House (as you stated).
I don’t believe the incredible timing of this announcement has been lost on anyone following the Manning/Snowden events. It smells like BS.
They Gov’t. has been exposed for lies, cover-ups, and blatant abuse of power. Clearly, the Gov’t created the mess exposed! But they keep a finger firmly pointing at Manning, Snowden, Assange, Greenwald, etc. while their double tap (+) drone strikes are weirdly absent from Big Media.
The biggest issue we have to face is simply this: Obama and his henchmen are power-hungry Liars.
They deal with it like 3 yr olds, “Look over there! We’re closing embassy’s!( because of Pvt. Manning & Snowden)!
Pathetic.