Last week I wrote about the sleazy push-poll Rep. Dave Reichert had in the field against challenger Darcy Burner, now confirmed by at least a half dozen recipients. So it was interesting to learn that state GOP chair Diane Tebelius is now accusing Democrats of push-polling:
This week marked additional lows for negative campaign tactics with the use of “push-polling” tactics in the 26th district race on the Kitsap Peninsula. […] The Lantz campaign is out to mislead voters with push polling surveys that target Beckie Krantz and malign her character. It is a devious tactic, but also shows that the Lantz campaign is pushing the panic button.
No doubt, push-polling is a devious tactic, but what Tebelius fails to add is, um… any corroborating evidence whatsoever.
This isn’t the first squawk I’ve heard from state Republicans about low-down, Democratic push-polls, mostly just warnings to constituents to beware of their inevitability. Which to the son of a Freudian psychoanalyst suggests a diagnosis of political projection, either conscious or unconscious. In layman’s terms I’m guessing we might be seeing an “I’m rubber, you’re glue” maneuver — an attempt by Republicans to immunize themselves against a backlash by accusing Democrats of conducting the very same, sleazy, low-down tactics that GOP candidates already have in the works.
UPDATE:
FYI, I’ve received a number of emails from experienced political operatives who absolutely agree: the R’s are planning to go real nasty this election and they’re just trying to set up the D’s so that the press will ignore it as tit for tat.
Miss Goldy, No thread on how the NSA, FBI, and Homeland Security helped MI5 to stop the terrorists? [I wonder what SEN Chuckie BOY Schumer thinks today after Bush saved his family?]
If it would get Democrat votes, would the DNC help the Islamic terrorists by limiting our ability to listen to their cellphone calls to Muslimland or by limiting our ability to follow thie “wire transfers”? Why, yes!!!, the Dems have tried both!! Democrats: Friends Of Islamic Terrorists!
Republicans,
HOW HOMO-EROTIC ARE THEY ????
Hah Haahh!!!
Famous Democrat Quotes: “J….E..W….S!!!” [REP Cynthia “BitchSlap” McKinney’s, DEMOCRAT, GA father], “FUCKING JEW BASTARD!” [to Dick Morris, from HILLARY!] “Hymietown, NY” [Jesse Shakedown” Jacksooooon], “Black women don’t lie about this!” [Al “Suits” Sharpton, discussing Tawana Brawley,], “WOP!” [Roger Rabbit] hehe, JCH
Republicans,
HOW HOMO-EROTIC ARE THEY ????
Hah Haahh!!!
Commentby Wells [………….Wells, Can you say “Tookie” Williams, Democrat hero???]
Pweeze Pweeze Mr. Bush I’m scaaaared. Pweeze Protect me from those scary A-rabs. (Sound of vigorous thumb sucking)
By the way, speaking of surveilance….have y’all installed your NSA keylogger–er, I mean critical Windows patches–yet?
6, NOT MY POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!………..Miss Goldie takes a dim view of using someone else’s name for comments.
“state GOP chair Diane Tebelius is now accusing Democrats of push-polling”
I hope it’s true. We need to hit these bastards with their own tactics.
1
“No thread on how the NSA, FBI, and Homeland Security helped MI5 to stop the terrorists?” Commentby Doctor JCH Kennedy— 8/11/06@ 12:23 pm
We’re still waiting for confirmation of that, Craig. It may be a long wait. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.....winkle.jpg
[Roger, FYI……Confirmation enough for you???]
Thwarting the Airline Plot: Inside the Investigation
Exclusive: U.S. picked up the suspects’ chatter and shared it with British authorities; new federal alert warns that peroxide-based explosives could also be employed in future attacks in the U.S.
Wednesday night was a long and troubling one for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. A bubbling plot by British citizens to blow up airplanes had come to a boil in the past three days, and as British authorities arrested dozens of suspects around London, it was Chertoff’s job to coordinate the U.S. defenses. Scary intelligence reports pop up all the time, but this particular terror operation got close enough to being carried out that it rattled even the normally sedate Chertoff. “Very seldom do things get to me,” he told Rep. Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, in a phone call late Wednesday night. “This one has really gotten to me.”
Chertoff had good reason to be worried. Senior U.S officials have confirmed to TIME details of the plot that led the secretary to ratchet up the color-coded security alert for British-U.S. flights to an unprecedented red for “Severe.” A total of 24 individuals were arrested in Britain overnight and, says one senior U.S. official who was briefed on the plot, five still remain at large. Their plan was to smuggle the peroxide-based liquid explosive TATP and detonators onto nine different planes from four carriers — British Airways, Continental, United and American — that fly direct routes between the U.K and the U.S. and blow them up mid-air. Intelligence officials estimate that about 2,700 people would have perished, according to the official.
Britain’s MI-5 intelligence service and Scotland Yard had been tracking the plot for several months, but only in the past two weeks had the plotters’ planning begun to crystallize, senior U.S. officials tell TIME. In the two or three days before the arrests, the cell was going operational, and authorities were pressed into action. MI5 and Scotland Yard agents tracked the plotters from the ground, while a knowledgeable American official says U.S. intelligence provided London authorities with intercepts of the group’s communications. Most of the suspects are second or third generation British citizens of Pakistani descent whose families hailed from war-torn Kashmir. U.S. officials believe the 29 members were divided into multiple cells and planned to break into small groups to board the nine planes.
During the past few months the plotters’ attack plans had changed, > said Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security Michael Jackson. “There were different data sets about their interests over time that evolved,” he said. It was only in recent days, said Jackson, that the plans began to focus on British-U.S. flights. The plot was “very near execution” but not imminent, Jackson said. “We didn’t pull people off of airplanes.”
So as not to derail the British round-up, Chertoff had to wait until the early hours of Thursday morning after all the London arrests were made before notifying U.S. airports of the threat, say senior DHS officals. When it became clear the arrests would be wrapped up around 1 a.m Washington time, Chertoff got on a conference call with his Homeland Security Advisory Committee to approve changing the threat level. Then calls when out to the airlines, airline security companies and labor unions affected by the changes, as well as to members of Congress.
Though the plot has all the hallmarks of an al Qaeda operation, U.S. officials cautioned that there isn’t yet evidence of a direct link between the plotters and the organization’s top leaders. “We’re not convinced this particular operation is connected to the al Qaeda chain of command,” Charles Allen, Chief of Intelligence for the Department of Homeland Security, told reporters on Thursday afternoon. As for whether the attack was being timed for the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, Allen said he thought the attack would simply be launched when it was ready. “I am a long standing believer that terrorist plotters or planners execute when they have all of the plot together,” said Allen. “We have no evidence this was timed to any particular holiday or special event.”
The plot also appears to be a return to older terrorist tactics of trying to blow up an airplane in mid air, rather than turn the jet into a missile as the Sept. 11 attackers did. Allen stressed that the plans seemed designed to kill passengers, not crash into a city on the ground. “We have no evidence there was targeting of cities,” said Allen, “This was an effort to destroy multiple aircraft in flight — not against any territory of the United States.”
With five members of the cell believed to be at large, the threat still looms and intelligence officials are still working to unravel the full extent of the plot. “I don’t believe we know all the dimensions of this plot. Time has to pass to determine that a network was disrupted,” said Allen. Worries another U.S. official: “Plan A has been stopped, but the concern: Is there a Plan B?”
The possibility that liquid explosives could be smuggled onto a plane is not a surprise to counterterrorism experts, and the tightening of U.S. airport security could only be temporary as security officials learn more about the extent of the plot and how to defend against such an attack. The current measures — stripping passengers of anything liquid in their carry-on luggage — were in reaction to these particular arrests, and not to the realization of a new, unforeseen threat. “We’re primarily concerned about this particular plot,” said Allen, implying that the new security measures are not permanent.
FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials quickly alerted law enforcement agencies around the country to the peroxide-based liquid explosives the London plotters planned to bring aboard the American-bound planes. An alert the FBI and DHS sent out Thursday to state and local law enforcement agencies — which is classified “For Official Use Only” and was obtained by TIME — warns them that the peroxide-based explosives could also be employed in future attacks here.
The Joint Homeland Special Assessment, which the FBI and DHS’s Office of Intelligence Analysis drafted and sent out, is titled “Possible Terrorist Use of Liquid Explosive Materials in Future Attacks.” The document states: “The FBI and DHS have no information of plotting within the United States, but such a possibility cannot be discounted.” The FBI-DHS report notes that Osama bin Laden’s top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri insisted in a July 27 videotape that Al Qaeda was still intent on conducting another “spectacular” attack in the United States. Zawahiri, the report notes, used photos of the World Trade Center burning on Sept. 11 and 9/11 leader Muhammad Atta “in the background of this video.”
The FBI-DHS report next warns law enforcement agencies about the two peroxide-based liquid explosive that could be used in a future attack against the U.S.–triacetone triperoxide (TATP) or hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD). The report describes how a terrorist would assemble bombs with these chemicals. Peroxide-based liquid explosives “are sensitive to heat, shock, and friction, can be initiated simply with fire or electrical charge, and can also be used to produce improvised detonators,” the report states. “For example, TATP or HMTD may be placed in a tube or syringe body in contact with a bare bulb filament, such as that obtained from inside a Christmas tree light bulb, to produce an explosion.” The report doesn’t mention anything about a terrorist assembling such a bomb on a plane, but it does warn that manufacturing such a device can be dangerous for the bombmaker. “Because of the instability of these substances,” the report notes, “spontaneous detonation can occur during the production process.”
Over the past ten years peroxide-based explosives have popped up in a number of terror operations, according to FBI-DHS report. “Terrorist have used peroxide-based explosive both as a main charge (weighing in excess of 20 pounds) and improvised detonators,” the joint assessment states. “TATP was popularized as a main charge explosive in suicide bombs used by Palestinian terrorist groups.”
Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted in 1996 for plotting to simultaneously bomb up to a dozen U.S. commercial airliners flying in the Far East, had manufactured TATP detonators. Arrested Dec. 14, 1999, for planning to attack Los Angeles International Airport in the millennium bombing plot, Ahmed Ressam had HMTD and RDX (cyclotrimethylene trinitrame) in a vial in the trunk of his car. He also had over 100 pounds of urea sulfate white powder and eight ounces of nitroglycerine mixture.
More recently, British shoe bomber Richard Reid tried to detonate his device with TATP as the initiator while aboard a Dec. 22, 2001, American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami. A mixture of TATP and ammonium nitrate was used in suicide bombs in Casablanca, Moroco on May 16, 2003. And the FBI-DHS report notes that four of the suicide bombers in the London subway attack July 7, 2005 “used peroxide-based explosive devices (IEDs), concealed inside rucksacks.” With such a rich history, liquid explosives are sure to challenge America’s counter-terror defenses for many years to come.
ArtFart@7 I have one word for you:KNOPPIX.
I’ve been reading carefully, and have yet to see a news item that any of the alleged Brit terrorism suspects HAD any liquid explosives (or even precursor chemicals) on or about him at the time of the arrest. No one has reported (to my knowledge) the presence or seizure of any liquid explosives at any time during the course of this event.
Anyone heard differently? Wouldn’t you think that if the suspects were actuallly in the “final stages” of a plot (as Michael Chertoff so drmatically put it), that they’d have, you know, some explosives somewhere or other?
BTW, speaking of the “politics of projection” include Republican accusations of voter fraud.
@13 This is without attribution, and is directly contradicted by statements made by British Officials. What, we are to accept the postings of a known liar?
The British initiated surveillance of this group shortly after the bus bombings, as the result of a telephone tip from a member of a Mosque. The arrests were occasioned by the apparent compromise of this surveillance. This is all from public statements by British Officials, carried in British media.
Without a citation and verification, bloviating Craig gives us gaseous vaprorizing lending merit wehere it does not appear to be due. . .the Bush Administration.
10 & 14
Yeah, I understand the folks at Proctor and Gamble were really delighted a few weeks ago when WGA declared about half of their desktops were using bootleg software.
There are a number of Linux distros now that are suitable for desktop use, including Mandriva, Ubuntu, etc. I may be giving Freespire a spin over the weekend.
One interesting thing to note: In “Fahrenheit 911”, Micheal Moore includes some footage of a trade show for companies seeking to cash in on the “national security boom”. One of the sponsors was Microsoft.
11 “state GOP chair Diane Tebelius is now accusing Democrats of push-polling”
Ah, Tebelius is no doubt working from the Karl Rove Political Field Manual. One of Turd Blossom’s signature tactics is to accuse the opposition of precisely whatever dirty trick you’re using on them.
Um, ArtFart, go to Cheapbytes.com or Edmunds Enterprises. $.99 cents for a Knoppix CD. Free, if you have a fast connection and choose to download. It boots and runs from the CD. It is very nearly bulletproof, and more importantly, Rootkit Proof.
You can try out the distro, and do not need to install. If you wish to save files, just set up a fold in your windows box.
For now, I’m taking the British arrests seriously; but if the Bushies did have their fingers in it, the odds are 100% that it will turn out to be another episode of hyperventilating over the wet dreams of a gang of Boys Club rejects.
The question you have to ask yourself is this: Post Valerie Plame, would you share much with Cheney/Rove if you were either MI5 or MI6?
17, TFF, The truth will set you free!!! [Today I think Senator Chuckie BOY Schumer might have a new respect for President Bush, but as a terrorist supporting Democrat, you can be sure he will act as a 5 year old.]
22
No.
That’s why I think it’ll turn out to be another “Howdy Doody Show” if the Bush admin had any involvement in it.
[Roger, FYI……Confirmation enough for you???]
Thwarting the Airline Plot: Inside the Investigation
Exclusive: U.S. picked up the suspects’ chatter and shared it with British authorities…………….Oh, how this upsets the dumb ass terrorist supporting libs like RR and Tree Frog!!!! BTW, Anyone heard from SEN Chuckie “BOY” Schumer’s family today?]
Famous Democrat Quotes: “J….E..W….S!!!” [REP Cynthia “BitchSlap” McKinney’s, DEMOCRAT, GA father], “FUCKING JEW BASTARD!” [to Dick Morris, from HILLARY!] “Hymietown, NY” [Jesse Shakedown” Jacksooooon], “Black women don’t lie about this!” [Al “Suits” Sharpton, discussing Tawana Brawley,], “WOP!” [Roger Rabbit] hehe, JCH
Headline: MI5 and George Bush’s HSA Save SEN Chuckie “BOY” Schumer and his Family. Chuck responds by moaning and bitch about flight delays out of Heathrow International!!!
28, Schumer……..Very typical bitching and moaning NY Democrat. [Miss Goldie, You MUST be related.]
IDF and IAF MEN: Doing their jobs. Miss Goldie: Hiding and bitching and moaning like SEN Chuckie “BOY” Schumer, NY. Gee, what a fucking surprise…………….
@15
Daddy,
They were arrested in England. Their intelligence services don’t leak information, neither does their press. They put out the minimum amount of info.
If they had been arrested here, Helen Thomas would have already told you the color of their underwear and everything else you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask.
The British police have much broader powers than ours, they can also hold them a lot longer for questioning.
Sgmmac at 31: It wouldn’t be Helen Thomas. The Bush administration has been ignoring her for years, because she asks embarrasing questions. They’ve been trying to freeze her out by denying her access to all but the most general information.
And I agree about the British. They’ve been keeping pretty quiet. But the Bush administration has been stumbling all over itself trying to leak information which makes it look like they had more to do with it than they did. For example, the implication that there is an Al Quida link came from U.S. sources (the British aren’t so sure), as did the claim that the original tip came from Pakistan (the British seem to be denying this).
Why would the U.S. want to tell ANYONE ANYTHING about its sources for this, until they absolutely had to?????? If true, I can see some Pakistani informer packing his bag and sneaking out the back door of his house right now, wondering how much about him has, or soon will be, disclosed. It seems to me that it’s amateur night again, with the lives of professional intelligence operatives and their sources being cashed in cheap for political points.
“But what about the terrorist’s privacy rights?” Senator Harry Reid, DEMOCRAT, NV
16, Dumb ass Democrat liberal terrorist suck up Tree Frog Farmer, From Time Online: “Thwarting the Airline Plot: Inside the Investigation
Exclusive: U.S. picked up the suspects’ chatter and shared it with British authorities; new federal alert warns that peroxide-based explosives could also be employed in future attacks in the U.S.”
RHP
I don’t them telling, I want them to do their jobs and keep their mouths shut. If our intelligence services and our police forces had the same laws as the British, they might get something done.
I am pleased that a court upheld the random searches in NYC subways too. But why is it so damn hard here?
Goldie- if you get this far down the comments- Pat Lantz has raised over $62,000 for her re-election; Becky Krantz hasn’t broken $15,000. I really doubt that the Democratic Party is worrying much about Krantz beating Lantz…
Bloviating Craig@33All you’ve done is spew political claptrap. The Homeland Insecurity is strictly amateur-hour. This was a Brit show. Now we get the Clowns and Elephants from Pennsylvania Avenue. What a circus.
Special Agent Tree Frog Farmer: Thanks for your “TOP SECRET” insight. I’m certain that your access to “need to know” info gives you a “keen” awareness!!!! hehe, JCH
Three Middle Eastern Men Found With 1000 Cell Phones, Now Face Charges.
JCH Kennedy,
they needed those 1000 cell phones so they could send electoral info to Goldie so the wascally Republicans could not check on them.
they needed those 1000 cell phones so they could not be tracked when they called their overseas handlers.
they needed those 1000 cell phones so they could launder their money so the ACLU could make a case for them.
Commentby Mike Webb Sucks […………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Mike Webb Sucks, Perhaps you should consider joining the “Kennedy Band Of Brothers” on HA.ORG by adding the name “Kennedy” to your posting name. Think about it. Us Kennedys rape, murder, drive and drive, and these dumb ass libs vote for us in EVERY election. By adding the name “Kennedy” you will join Rufus, Mark the Redneck, JCH, Pud, and, shit…………who am I missing? Anyway, this drives the commie libs nuts as they know they are dumb ass hypocites who feel that the Kennedys are “just a little more equal” than the rest of Americans. Best regards, JCH “Pat” Kennedy]
38………cont………Sorry, I forgot “Dan Rather Kennedy”!!!!!! Dan, I’m sorry. My bad!!!!!!!!!!! JCH Kennedy
Poll question
If you knew that George Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove were working with Osama bin Laden to plan fake terror attacks on the US around election time in order to beef up GOP chances, would you be more or less likely to vote GOP?
40, Left Turn, Perhaps it was Cynthia “BitchSlap” McKinney, William J. “Icebox” Jefferson, and Nancy “Nip/Tuck” Pelosi, DEMOCRATS, that were “working” with Osama Bin Laden?? [You are a total Democrat dumb ass!]
With Hezbollah beating Israel and Bush pushing for a ceasefire with the #1 Terrorist Organization in the world — who is the party that is tough on terrorism again?
Combine this with the loss of Mauritania, Somalia, S. Lebannon, the give away of Afghanistan to Sharia Law, and Iraq still up in the air. Seems to me that we are losing not only the battle of ideas, but the land war as well.
Forgot to mention the pull out of the Gaza Strip and the election of the #3 terrorist organization.
I predict the next loss in the war on terrorism is Iran gets the A-bomb or Pakistan goes in the Islamic Fascist camp with the death of Mushariff
7 et seq
I highly recommend Ubuntu over Knoppix, but a lot of that is because I prefer Gnome to KDE. I use Ubuntu on my desktop machine and if it has ever phoned Microsoft, it was only to give them a Bronx cheer. My laptop dual boots Ubuntu with Windows XP, but if it sends data back to Microsoft about all they’re going to find out is that I spend way too much time playing Civilization IV.
Here’s what IS a fact in the UK terrorist arrests:
EVERY telephone tap and EVERY search was performed with a legal warrant based on pobable cause and issued by the Home Secretary.
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