Monday, July 02, 2007

Heightened US Security planned for July 4th holiday


While US homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff denied any specific threat, security has been stepped up at US airports, train stations, tourist spots landmarks and various locations in the wake of the British bombings. And Chertoff spoke at a press conference about increasing concerns about “the movement of Europeans, including people with European citizenship, into areas of South Asia to get trained and get experience and then coming back to carry out operations in Europe or in the United States using Europe as a departure point."

In the wake of all this, a secret report that was prepared for the Department of Homeland Security made the wire services today. It apparently talks about al Qaeda plans for a terror "spectacular" this summer,

ABC News quoted someone they descibe as `a senior official with access to the document' as saying: "This is reminiscent of the warnings and intelligence we were getting in the summer of 2001."

We've been lucky for a really long time with these people, but a lot of our security and surveillance practices have been eroded by being revealed to the general public since 9/11 and by our own complacency.

When the candidates of one of the major parties can hold a series of debates and not even address the fact that we're at war and how best to protect the country, you know that a lot of people are in deep denial.

If you ask me, personally, I expect things to stay fairly quiet until just before or just after the 2008 elections. That would fit in with our enemies' usual pattern...but it may be that they feel the need to rock the Great Satan before then, hoping it will accelerate our exit from Iraq.

That's the way the game is played when you fight a war with a reactive, defensive strategy....and a part of your leaders and population live in denial.

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