Who Can Really Say?

On the Orange Alert Case

The latest Orange Alert in NYC, NJ, and Washington DC is the result of a lodestar find -- we captured the laptops of an Al Quaeda bad guy.

Rantingprofs noted the incisive interview of Tom Ridge on the Today Show this morning:

Secretary Ridge, meanwhile, appeared this morning on The Today Show. The sheer absurdity of some of the questions demonstrates some of the problems.

Matt Lauer asks about the quality of the intelligence since the "reliability" of intelligence has been called into question -- you know, on WMD and Iraq.

Wow, I suppose it's a good thing he asked that, since some of the audience probably wonders as well. But seeing as this alert is based on precisely the kind of intelligence everyone complains was missing on Iraq -- you know, the guy's actual laptop -- you'd think the answer might be, you know, kind of self-evident.

There was another question that I thought absolutely summed up the problem with media coverage of the War on Terror. Lauer goes through some of the kinds of intelligence they apparently have, elevators, location of security guards, ways to get past security, so forth, and says (incredulously): they are "walking in our midst as we go to work each morning."

Gee, ya think?

The Today Show is virtually unwatchable.

Posted by Peter at August 2, 2004 08:19 PM