Example of Leftist slant in the news

Here's the headline on the BBC Website:

US terror plot intelligence 'old' US officials say new warnings of terror attacks are based on information collected by al-Qaeda up to four years ago.

The US administration admits that new warnings of attacks on American cities were based on information gathered by al-Qaeda up to four years ago.

Using the word 'admits' implies that some sort of deception took place, and the 'information collected by al-Qaeda up to four years ago' in the headline puts on it excactly the spin the Left wants on this story -- that this information is not very relevant, and that the Bush administration purposely blew this this warning out of proportion for political purposes.

Let's not rule out the possibility. But in my experience it's best to go to the most rational explanation first.

What are the facts? The facts are

• al-Qaeda has been collecting information on these sites for at least four years.
• we recently got hold of the details of al-Qaeda's intelligence gathering on these sites
• intelligence suggests that al-Qaeda is planning an attack this summer
• even if intelligence didn't point to that, we know they want to attack sometime, and these are obviously well-researched sites they've been focusing on.

Suppose that Bush and Ridge decided to sit on this information. After all, according to critics, it's 'old', and therefore not very important. What do you suppose the criticism would be if one or more of these targets where hit? "Why didn't you tell us?"

Much is made of the memo that Bush reportedly "ignored" that was titled something like "Bin Laden determined to strike inside the US". Folks, that's some pretty general information, and believe me, it was old news. When I first heard the news of an airplane crashing into the World Trade Center; I, a mere civillian, knew immediately it wasn't an accident and I knew who was behind it because I'd been paying attention for the past few years.

This information is a lot more specific. The fact that al-Qaeda's been working on it for 4 years makes it more relavent. These guys plan for a long time, then do their deeds.

I suppose there are those who want to think that this threat is all made up in the first place, but if you ask me, these people have their heads up a dark hole somewhere.