CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI's weekly alert bulletin, sent to 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, focused this week on the possibility of al Qaeda recruiting non-Arabs to carry out attacks in the United States.
"Finding operatives with U.S. [citizenship or legal residency] status would greatly facilitate al Qaeda's ability to carry out an attack within the United States," the bulletin said.
Although finding operatives with US citizenship and residency would greatly help Al Qaeda's ability to attack within the US, the timing of this "possibility" gives me pause. Forgive my cynicism, but isn't this message ironic given the current political context - Bush's slipping poll numbers, election tampering in Florida, F 9-11 popularity, a still-to-be released torture video involving Iraqi children, the loss of broad-based support for the Iraq War and the increased willingness on the part of people and the mainstream media to question?
What is being implied in this meme? What message to the patriots? Does this mean that anyone (in this charged election time) who expresses anti-administration, anti-Bush, anti-policy sentiments will be blacklisted or (worse) dismissed as a terrorist sympathizer/recruit. Not only does it escalate the climate of fear, it gives people a reason not to think, not to question, or listen or investigate - for our own good. And it marginalizes, "us" - the people keeping a very sharp eye on this administration's double-speak.
How do we counter this? How do we get through this new smokescreen?