Here we go...
The coincidence is uncanny! U.S. election season heats up, the terrorists "threaten America."
No, it's not The Onion. It's AP!
Fresh off the Yahoo front page, is this beauty of a headline:
Commander Warns of Al-Quaida Threat
Sounds scary, right? Unless you actually, you know, read the article. Unintentional hilarity after the fold...
WASHINGTON - Al-Qaida terrorists may be plotting more urgently to attack the United States to maintain their credibility and ability to recruit followers, the U.S. military commander in charge of domestic defense said Thursday.
Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, chief of the U.S. Northern Command, also told reporters he has not seen any direct threats tied to the U.S. presidential elections. But he said it would be rash to think that such threats are not there.
So, no actual new threats, but that doesn't mean they're not there. Better be afraid, just to be safe.
"We need only to look at Spain and see that they're certainly willing to try to do something that is significant that could affect an election process," Renuart said. "I think it would be imprudent of us to let down our guard believing that if there's no credible threat that you know of today, there won't be something tomorrow."
Better be afraid tomorrow, too. No new intelligence, nothing has actually changed-- this is just a friendly reminder.
While he said that U.S. authorities have thwarted attacks on a number of occasions, he said terrorist cells may be working harder than ever to plot high-impact events. He did not point to any specific intelligence that authorities have received but said the "chatter" they are hearing "gives me no reason to believe they're going to slow down" in their efforts to target the U.S.
There you have it. No new intelligence that gives him any reason to think that they're not planning an attack.
The entire story is based on the fact that he hasn't overheard a terrorist say 'Forget it, guys. Let's not attack America. Let's go play hacky-sack.' Why just today I was at my bank, and I didn't hear any of the tellers say they weren't going to put an extra million in my checking account. Yes!
The last quote is from a little higher up the food chain, and basically highlights the fact that the entire article is an effing waste of space.
Asked about the terror threat, Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said, "There continues to be no credible information telling us about an imminent threat to homeland at this time."
And there you have it. Another helping of the MSM's crack investigative reporting and in-depth analysis.
BushCo dictates it, the monkey stenographer at AP types it up, and Yahoo.com laps it up and splashes it across the front page.
It's March. The election is in November.
Get used to it.