JFK Airport plot convenient excuse for W to crank up the PR machine

My first thought when I heard about the FBI's sting operation that uncovered the plot to blow up JFK International Airport and surrounding neighborhoods was, "thank God the FBI caught them." However, my second thought was, "I wonder if this is being milked by an administration that never misses an opportunity to remind us how safe it's keeping the country."

To me, that's a pretty pathetic thought for any American citizen to have, yet that's how cynical I've become in the face of the Bush administration's relentless PR and marketing effort to force feed their image as the Party That Can Keep Us the Safest. I'd invite anyone who thinks that's cynical to look up various quotations by Dick Cheney and Rudy Giuliani from this year alone - the evidence is easy to find. (You can find lots of it in CMB's archives.)

Of course, the media didn't miss an opportunity to hype the living daylights out of this story over the weekend, either. Don't get me wrong - of course it's a big story, and the media has a responsibility to cover it, and cover it well. But, the media never ceases to amaze me when something like this is uncovered. Just like the plot to attack Fort Dix last month - you would have thought that nothing else was happening in the world, at all.

Ever since 9-11, I just get the feeling that the media has overtly complied with the Bush administration's wishes to scare the living daylights out of us. History shows that a frightened public is a compliant public. Since the 9-11 attacks, there are examples too numerous to mention of this administration's taking advantage of our fears. The USA Patriot Act is probably the best example.

The FBI infiltrated the suspected Muslim terrorist cell that plotted to blow up the airport, its fuel tanks and a jet fuel artery, arresting three men, one of them a former member of Guyana's parliament. A fourth man is still being sought in Trinidad as part of the plot that authorities said they had been tracking for more than a year and was foiled in the planning stages.

Again, bravo to the FBI for a job well done (I really mean that), but this whole incident raises the question - how safe are we, really? Our ports, nuclear plants, food and water supply and many other areas are still wide open, all because of the War in Iraq. This administration has gotten way with homeland security on the cheap. I sure hope our luck continues, but Homeland Security shouldn't be left to chance with luck. Above, fuel tanks are seen at JFK International Airport in New York Sunday, June 3, 2007. I know that there's a great deal that I don't know about security at airports, but just from what I've seen from doing what little air travel I have done in the past few years, our security measures could use a great deal of improvement.

Above, yesterday an approaching aircraft flies overhead past a marker indicating the route of the jet fuel pipeline supplying JFK airport near 157 Ave. and 99th St. in the residential neighborhood of Howard Beach, Queens, N.Y. The lengthy pipeline was installed decades ago to replace barge deliveries of jet fuel. Should it be this easy for a would-be terrorist to identify and find a major jet fuel pipeline? Just a thought.

And one more thought - I did some reading about the plot that the FBI uncovered, and it seems that the terrorists had a difficult time acquiring explosives to do the job. Really? How hard is it to get explosives in America? Not that hard. Timothy McVeigh didn't find it very hard, and neither did the people who perpetrated the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. Either the media (and really, the FBI and this administration) are all blowing this threat way out of proportion (anything think that's far-fetched?), or these four terrorists are the dumbest people walking the planet. Or, it could be a combination of the two.

My point in all of this is that my feelings are yet another indication to me about how far this administration's credibility has fallen - it's to the point now that any report about terrorism or the War on Terrorism can and should be viewed with skepticism before being believed.

I'll feel much more safe, and a whole lot more trusting of our government, when Bush is out of office.

Top photo, Reuters
Second and third photos by David Karp, AP
Bottom photo by Rick Maiman, AP