'Fool me twice ...'

There are folks in this administration banking on your being a fool.

Here’s proof:

THE LAST FIVE YEARS:

It did not take a rocket scientist to detect the patterns that evolved after 9/11.

Each time the latest scandal broke involving the Bush administration, each time polls showed Bush’s numbers spiraling downward, Americans were treated, via the U.S. media, to:

* The issuance of new terror alerts – each one turning out to be bogus. This pattern – bad Bush news accompanied by a terror alert - became so obvious, so ridiculous and so documented across the Internet, those color-coded alerts just simply went away. (Fox News still runs them on its bottom-of-the-screen crawler.)
* A multitude of hours-long, live reports focusing on a deserted bag or suitcase or backpack, blown up by robots and turning out to be a bag or suitcase or backpack.
* Former Attorney General John Ashcroft calling a press conference and announcing the arrest of yet another “high-profile al Qaeda suspect.” Funny thing was: the ACTUAL arrest of each had been made months before the press conference.

IN THE LAST WEEK:

* Articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney – H.R. 333 – were introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
* The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform voted to issue a subpoena to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in its investigation into Bush’s SOTU claim that Saddam sought to buy uranium yellowcake from Niger. (LINK)
* Congress and Bush are headed toward a stalemate on legislation which would begin the redeployment of our troops from Iraq. Bush will veto the bill, falsely claiming it will cut off funding to our troops. The Pentagon itself has said the troops are funded through the end of June.
* Former CIA Director George Tenet’s book, “At the Center of the Storm” (HarperCollins), goes on sale tomorrow. In it, he details the Bush administration’s manipulation of prewar intelligence, discloses the White House’s efforts to justify invading iraq and claims he was a “scapegoat.” (LINK) Tenet is scheduled to appear on CBS’ “60 Minutes” tonight at 7 EDT and on “Larry King Live,” CNN, Monday at 9 p.m. EDT.

ON WEDNESDAY:

A Taliban military commander claimed, in an al-Jazeera interview, that Osama bin Laden planned an attack targeting Dick Cheney. Twenty-three persons were killed outside the Bagram base in Afghanistan during the vice president’s February visit. The White House said there is no intelligence to back up the claim, yet the U.S. media treated the report as a major story. (LINK)

IN THE LAST TWO DAYS:

On Friday, the Pentagon announced a top al Qaeda official had been arrested and is in custody. The announcement was the top story of the day.

Yesterday, with reports of the arrest of 172 Saudi “terrorists,” headlines screamed:

* “Saudi official: militant suspects had flight training.” (LINK)
* “Saudi Arabia militants planned 9/11-style attack” (LINK)
* “U.S. targets al Qaeda in Iraq” (LINK)

IN SUMMARY:

At last count, there were 10 separate documented incidents of U.S. warnings of imminent attacks that subsequently turned out to be non-existent or misleading.

It’s hard to know what’s real any more. Most Americans don’t have time for the diligence truth-seeking requires. That’s what we used to depend on the media to do.

Follow this brief verbatim introduction to a report on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” (LINK) Friday, 4/27/2007, at 6 p.m.:

DOBBS: “Former CIA director George Tenet is out with a book, and he's strongly defending his role in the period leading up to the war in Iraq. Tenet telling CBS News that the White House has made him a scapegoat for the war, because of his famous or infamous 'slam-dunk' comment about weapons of mass destruction. Tenet says the remark was taken out of context, he never intended to suggest that the case for going to war was proven.

“The Pentagon today said a senior al Qaeda terrorist has been captured and is now in custody in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The military says the terrorist was taken into custody late last year. An intelligence official said he is a member of al Qaeda's governing council.

“Saudi security forces have arrested more than 170 suspected al Qaeda terrorists. They say the radical Islamists were plotting to attack Saudi oil and military facilities. Officials said some of the terrorists were training to fly aircraft on suicide attack missions.

“Nic Robertson has our report now from CNN Center in Atlanta.”

That big headline from Friday: did you notice Dobbs said the top al Qaeda official was arrested at the end of last year? So, why did the Pentagon make it front page news on Friday, four months later?

Suddenly, al Qaeda and Osam bin Laden are all over the news again.

Those screaming headlines yesterday conjure images of 9/11 and serve as a super red herring, diverting attention from breaking stories about the Bush administration and burgeoning violence and U.S. deaths in Iraq.

As “Bill Moyers’ Journal” (PBS) pointed out this past week – in the words of TV news executives themselves – news reports are no longer investigated; they are often simply regurgitated from press releases and statements made by the very government officials the media should be monitoring in the first place.

I am no fool.

Remember the words of George W. Bush:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, ‘Fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again." — Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002. (LINK)

Or, something like that. Anyway, I hope you get the picture!

***

4/30/2007 UPDATE

Big story today, other than Bush's looming veto and attempts to discredit former CIA Director George Tenet:

“LONDON, England (CNN) -- Five Britons have been found guilty of plotting to carry out al Qaeda-inspired bomb attacks across Britain on targets ranging from a nightclub to a shopping mall.

“The gang planned to use 600 kg (1,300 lb) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer to make explosives to be used in bombings in revenge for Britain's support the United States in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks, prosecutors said.” (LINK)