Ever The Cynic

Why do I get the feeling that the recent spate of terrorist arrests have been pending, being kept on hold until the last few months leading up to the election?

As was widely reported last week, the arrest of the "senior" al Qaeda operative that was reported during the Democratic National Convention, had actually been arrested several days prior to the convention...

Timing of Ghailani’s arrest considered "intriguing"
By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: The timing of the announcement by Pakistan of the arrest of the al Qaeda suspect, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, coincide as it did with the big night of the Democratic party convention, is raising a few eyebrows here.

President Pervez Musharraf said Friday that the arrest was made on Sunday. Why the information was held back for five days he did not make clear.

Typical of the speculation underway is the comment posted on one Internet website. "If this is what was offered in July, just wait for November, the presidential election month." However, the announcement of the arrest had no effect whatever on the concluding day of the Democratic convention in Boston where John Kerry accepted the nomination of his party.

An article in New Republic magazine this month said Washington had been increasing pressure on Pakistan to kill or capture Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda fugitives before the November presidential election. The report was strongly denied by the Pakistan foreign office spokesman Masood Khan.

The New Republic reported that a White House aide told Pakistani intelligence chief Ehsan ul-Haq that the best days to announce the killing or capture of any target would be July 26, 27 or 28, coinciding with the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston. The magazine cited an unidentified subordinate of Gen. Ehsan as a source.

The Bush administration has rejected the report as false.

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<sarcasm>Of course they did!</sarcasm>

Now, I do not doubt that a terrorist threat exists -- it is clear that the Bush administration has done nothing but increase and amplify the threat since September 11, primarily with the war in Iraq, but also because its tack has been to vanquish enemies instead of developing an understanding of what puts us in this untenable position in the first place.

UPDATE: I just heard Richard Clarke say on ABC's This Week (paraphrasing): "We can kill and hunt down and arrest all kinds of terrorists. What we have to do more is show the Islamists that we are a better choice than bin Laden and al-Qaeda."

Considering that Clarke is one of the enemies that the Bushies have cultivated, I highly doubt they'll consider that much of an option.