Two reasonable questions

Terrorists were planning to blow up as many as ten trans-Atlantic airliners. Scotland Yard estimates that there were 50 individuals involved, of whom fewer than half have been taken into custody.

The White House is hoping that this will “play big” as a political opportunity, according to the Huffington Post. Let’s examine What we know so far …

The terrorists who were arrested were British born men of Pakistani extraction. We are told that Pakistan’s intelligence services provided crucial help to the Brits. I am not an intelligence analyst, but it seems to me that some part of the plot took place in Pakistan.

The plot involved pairs of terrorists boarding airplanes with innocuous liquids, which when combined form a peroxide explosive. These explosives were to be ignited with a flash from a disposable camera. If ten airliners blew up, the number of deaths involved would be multiples of the number who perished on 9-11.

This plot is identical to another one broken up in 1995, called Operation Bojinka, which was the brainchild of Kahlid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of 9-11. The British plot had other ear-marks of al-Qaeda, for example, the element of numerous coordinated targets. Of course, al-Qaeda has been promising a big operation for some time now.

Most of all, there is the Pakistan connection. MSNBC is reporting that the mastermind of the operation is believed to be hiding in Pakistan. Osama Bin Ladin is also believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

Osama Bin Ladin is a name I have not heard in all of the coverage of the spoiled terror plot. For those who may have forgotten, King George, in a moment of macho enthusiasm promised to get Osama Bin Ladin “dead or alive.” One of those who apparently have forgotten is Dubya, who in a candid moment, admitted he doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about him.

A reasonable question to ask is this: “Why is that son-of-a-bitch, Bin Ladin, still alive?” The answer, of course, is that it is because of the incompetence of this administration at every level.

When the Presidential Daily Briefing said that Bin Ladin was determined to strike in America, the National Security Advisor considered it historical information, which was not actionable. She was later promoted to Secretary of State.

The Defense Department apparently lied to the 9-11 Commission to make it seem that they were more competent on that dreadful day than the newly released information indicates. (I wrote about it here.)

When we thought Bin Ladin was in Afghanistan, we pulled troops out of there to fight a war in Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that didn’t exist.

The head of Homeland Security is the same guy who was in charge of Homeland Security a year ago, when Hurricane Katrina brought their incompetence into sharp focus.

Here’s another reasonable question: How in the world can the White House think that this record of incompetence can “play big” as a “political opportunity.”

“… and tell ’em Big Mitch sent ya!”