Anti-gay robo-call

The politics of terror

Slowly making its rounds through the tunnels of the internet is this amazing story of how the Bush administration burnt computer expert Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, the undercover al Qaeda source for its latest production, the August surprise.

You'll recall that The New Repubic had predicted that the Bushies would capture an "important" al Qaeda figure and trot him out in a July surprise during the Democratic National Convention. And so reports of the capture of a high-value person of interest, one Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, appeared as predicted, just before Kerry's speech.

Not content with its less than bouncy bounce out of its apparent coup, the administration announced, in the personage of First Toady Tom Ridge, an impending major al Qaeda attack, based on the computer records of Khan, another captured high-value person of interest, whose July arrest may have led to the apprehending of Ghailani. Ridge's announcement, in which he lauded "the president's leadership" came just as Kerry and Edwards hit the road on their post-convention tour--in fact, on the very Sunday that Kerry and Edwards themselves appeared on all of the Sunday talk shows.

Just a coincidence, of course.