Do you remember? I do. I remember how the president and others in his administration told us that even revealing the existence of the NSA wiretapping program and the program tracking terrorist funds through international banks gave aid and comfort to our enemies. They shouted from on high that such disclosures by the press would cripple the effort to protect us from the terrorists (as opposed to those times when they made the disclosures themselves several years ago, before the Iraq war distracted them from al Qaeda, or the time they leaked the identity of a double agent).
And yet yesterday we learned that a major plot, equivalent in scope to 9/11 some say, has been thwarted. How could they have possibly managed to even discover it, much less stop it if the terrorists now know that their phones and bank accounts are being surveilled? If such knowledge was so damaging that it was called treason, then why are we all reading headlines about over 24 arrests with more possibly to come? Because even knowing that we are listening in, they still communicate via phone and email (and internationally where we and they have always known that they’re being surveilled).
Also, why do we have a terror warning level? After the news broke that the would-be terrorists had begun to be rounded up by Scotland Yard, the threat level was increased. Note the keyword “after”. In other words, it is a reactionary system and thus does not truly function to protect us. Either that or our government had no knowledge of the plot before the British started arresting people (actually, if the information here is correct, our government didn’t know until the last minute because the British didn’t want the investigation blown by us). If they knew before that though, shouldn’t they have used it for what they claim it’s purpose is, to warn us, to put us on guard against an emminent attack?
The way the administration used the system today gives the terrorists a win without any of the bloodshed. We don’t call them terrorists because they want to kill people. We call them that because they want to terrify us. They want us weakened by that fear. By reacting to them in a way that provokes fear, we are handing them a victory on a silver platter.
I would go on more, but having read (and now pointed you to) John Rogers’ admonition against fear in this matter and Colby Cosh’s detailing of just how un-threatening the explosive was, I have nothing more to add that they don’t say better.