One highly placed official in the Bush Administration makes the point that his country men must accept as fact that their nation is a target and get on with business as usual. With this totally paradoxical statement, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge underscores the extent to which the American people have come in their effort to deal with the fear spawned by the reality of terrorism, and its myriad of phantom menaces.
As Ridge reportedly put it to the American people, and the world “The reality of living in America after September 11 is that we have to accept the fact that from time to time that we’re going to get information about attacks,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America” show.
Americans must accept their nation is a target and get on with business as usual, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Monday after raising the threat levels in Washington and New York to high.
“The reality of living in America after September 11 is that we have to accept the fact that from time to time that we’re going to get information about attacks,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America” show.
As regards the specifics, the new information is to the effect that The United States issued a “high” level threat alert for financial institutions in Washington and the New York area on Sunday after receiving detailed intelligence about a possible al Qaeda attack.
Again, as we have learned, the specific targets were the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington, the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup Inc. in New York and the Prudential Financial building in Newark, New Jersey.
Incidentally, and for information, he “high,” or code-orange, threat level is the second highest in the government’s five-stage terrorism alert system. It represents a “high risk of terrorist attack.
Another American, Herbert E. Meyer who served during the Reagan administration as special assistant to the director of central intelligence and as vice chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council, suggests that ﾠthe real value of intelligence isn’t merely to provide a last-minute warning so you can dodge a bullet or a bomb ﾗ or a hijacked 757. Rather, it is to see the future clearly enough, and early enough, so that you can change the future before it happens.
Meyer is of the view that to do this you need insight even more than you need secrets; this means that, to prevent the next failure, we will need to do more than merely re-organize the intelligence community, or even name a director of national intelligence to oversee the whole alphabet soup of agencies and offices.
ﾠHe elaborates, ﾓAs I have said before, intelligence isn’t organizational charts: It’s people. And this means that unless we put at the upper echelons of the CIA the best analysts and pattern-spotters our country can provide ﾗ the kinds of men and women who aren’t likely to be career government officials ﾗ we won’t be ready for whatever the next history-making cataclysm turns out to be.ﾒ
ﾠWe who observe, as it were from the distance, can do little else but watch, hope, and pray, that the worse does not come. And, we pray, too, for the coming of a ﾠmore peaceful, and just order of things in the world.
But, today, things are not looking good. ﾠIt sure seems as if the whole world is under siege. It now seems as if no day can go by when there is no reference to the next big threat to the United States of America, and its myriad of interests around the world. In a word, it sure seems as if a toxic mix of ﾠdread, fear, and paranoia is the order of the new day in the world.
And, for sure, we know with an absolute certainty that there is no safe hiding place for anyone in a world which is wired, and intricately integrated. When, for example, terrorists indicate that they intend to hit targets in the United States of ﾠAmerica, the whole world shudders. This is so because that great nation stands at the epicenter of world culture, trade, and economics. If the center is in distress, everyone else feels the emanating shocks, and after-shocks.
In the specific instance of ﾠcountries like the Bahamas, and its neighbors in the region, there is absolutely no doubt that they are particularly, and uniquely susceptible to any disruptions in the United States. And, thus are alarmed at late-breaking news which speaks of the possibility of imminent ﾠterrorist attacks upon the United States.
Take for example the latest breaking news about plans purportedly afoot to bomb a number of extremely important landmarks and public icons in Washington, New
York, and New Jersey. Quite evidently, that announcement was enough to send a spasm of jitters throughout the United States, and into the whole world. Whether actual attacks are intended, or not, the result is an exponential increase in levels of fear practically everywhere.
This paranoia was unleashed onto the world in full force, and fury on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That 9/11 date has been etched into the consciousness of the world. From that fateful day, to this current moment, Americans and people around the world have sought to brace themselves for the ﾑnext big attackﾴ. Paradoxically, the next big attack may well be ongoing, and on target. Indeed some pundits are of the view that the next big attack is the ongoing assault on public health, with psychological warfare as the preferred terrain, and fear the principal weapon.
Editorial, The Bahama Journal
