The Unknown Candidate: There They Go Again ...

Sunday, August 13, 2006

There They Go Again ...

Politically spin spin spinning the U.K. Terror Bust.

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- You would think the suspects arrested in the U.K. yesterday were geniuses -- plotting to blow up airliners over the Atlantic. Who would have thought of such a thing?

I would have, but that's because I waste so many hours watching Jack Bauer foil various terrorist plots on the television program ``24.'' What I never thought to do was to go to the ``Contact Us'' button at the top of the Homeland Security Department Web site and alert them to the potential danger posed by every cup of Starbucks and bottle of shampoo passing through security.

Now that I know they don't defend against anything not specifically relayed from intelligence sources, I'm going to warn them that talcum powder may be a problem. I saw that on ``Alias.''

Although a lamer agency has never existed, that didn't stop Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff from taking a bow for uncovering a plot the U.S. had almost nothing to do with. There he was crowing on live TV and on the Web site about how much safer the country was because of the arrests.