I LOVE the Miami Plot. It's so stupid. It's so Bush...

I like to imagine the 'official' fake Al Qaida swearing-in ceremony. That must have been a special moment.

To show how successful their terror-fighting strategy is, the White House claimed that “overall, the United States and our partners have disrupted several serious plots since September 11, including al-Qaida plots to attack inside the United States.” We hope that’s true (we really do). However, some of the claims don’t add up. To fight attacks, we need to separate the hype and hysteria from reality.

a) The Miami Plot: This past June, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales hailed the discovery of a “deadly plot” to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago proved “our commitment to preventing terrorism through energetic law enforcement efforts aimed at detecting and thwarting terrorist acts.” New reports show the plot may have been nothing more than the deluded dream of couple of guys with absolutely no way of pulling it off. All of the concrete elements were actually provided by an FBI informant. The terrorists in question called themselves kings and wanted to train their recruits to use bows and arrows. They did a lot of fake karate. They smoked a lot of pot. A couple of FBI informants then met the men. They provided: Money. A place for meeting headquarters. Video cameras for surveillance. Cellphones. Suggestions for their first target (the Miami FBI offices). An official “swearing-in ceremony” for Al Qaeda. Bottom line: Not really the “deadly plot” Gonzales was talking about. [Washington Post]
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