I’ve always suspected that the stories about an al Qaida effort to disrupt the American election were, in a word, bogus. I even suspect that much of the heavily publicized efforts to put beefed up security and police patrols around polling stations has at least in part a political motive.
Now, you’ll remember from the 9/11 commission hearings earlier this year that the National Security Advisor is, or should be, the quarterback when the country faces a heightened or imminent threat of terrorist attack. She’s the one who pulls together all the various threat reports and makes sure all legs and arms of the national security apparatus are working in unison.
If this whole ‘al Qaida disrupting the democratic process’ is on the level then we’re entering the red zone right about now. We’re ten days out from the election.
So why is the National Security Advisor, Condi Rice, out hitting the campaign trail?
Think about that for a second. Is there any possible good answer? Either all the effort to hype an election day al Qaida threat is just another effort to use the White House’s control over the intelligence community as a campaign asset or Rice is shirking her duties at a moment of acute national peril.
Some member of the travelling press should ask her which it is.
