Uh, oh, here we go again. Tom Ridge’s color-coded terror machine has been dusted off and we are now on Orange Alert.

We’ve all seen the “new” restrictions for air travelers on carrying any kind of liquids aboard airliners. Now, in addition to taking off your watch, jewelry, shoes, belts and placing your laptop in a separate tray, you’ll be checking your bags and praying they meet you at your destination.

Oh, and no Starbucks. Sooner or later nursing mothers will just have to suckle their babies right on board. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I guess all that’s not too much to ask, right?

Bush and Company keep telling us that they are constantly working to protect us. It’s for our own safety. Mind you, big shot government officials and corporate CEOs don’t have to submit to those annoyances when they board their taxpayer- or shareholder-supplied private jets.

The President even took a break from clearing brush to blame al Qaeda for the plot. Yet, in March 2002, Bush was asked about Osama bin Laden, a man who remains alive and free. His answer: “I don’t know where (bin Laden) is. Nor — you know, I just don’t spend that much time on him, really, to be honest with you ... I truly am not that concerned about him.”

I wonder if he’s concerned about him now. Maybe Dick is concerned, or Rummy? Certainly the CIA is concerned. A few days prior to the bust, VP Cheney managed to mention how electing Ned Lamont will embolden the “al Qaeda” types, this during an ad-hoc telephone press conference.

I’m sure the fact he knew the Brits were going to bust the bad guys in the next few days had nothing to do with his timing – he’s always been so accessible to the press, and supportive of Democrats. Yet, I wonder why in early July of this year the Central Intelligence Agency closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants. Does that sound like a good idea to you, does that sound like anybody’s concerned about bin Laden? Do you feel any safer yet?

So the Brits catch some people plotting an attack with liquid explosives and build-on-board bombs. Sound familiar? In 1994 Ramzi Yousef and Wali Khan Amin Shah were instrumental in the bombing of a Philippine airlines flight en route to Japan that used much the same methods as this most recent plot. They had plans to bomb several Pacific flying airliners after their test. They were caught when one of the bad guys accidentally blew up an apartment in the Philippines.

So the idea that the bad guys may try to use the build-on-board bomb with liquid explosives shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody, especially the ultra vigilant “you’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie” Bush administration.

The fact that they were native born Brits is not news any more than the “Lackawanna 6” gang that was busted in upstate New York.

You might be surprised to know that there are devices called explosives detection trace portals, or “puffer machines” for short, that might have been able to detect those explosives. The puffers can identify explosive residue as small as one-billionth of a gram, according to the manufacturer, General Electric Ion Track. They cost $165,000 each.

It’s been 12 years since Ramzi Yousef tried the build-on-board with liquid explosives. With all that time since his first attempt, I wonder why we don’t have these machines all over. I wonder why just this month the Bush administration was quietly seeking permission to divert $6 million that was supposed to be spent developing new homeland explosives detection technology. Are you feeling safer now?

But Bush has no problem with yet another tax cut for the ultra rich that will cost the treasury north of $300 billion dollars over the next decade, according to the Economist magazine. Does that sound like protection from terrorists? Have you had enough of them yet?

So what happens when the terrorists figure out how to make explosives look like leather? Or better yet, cloth? And they figure out how to defeat the puffer machines? Will we all have to travel nude?

This is why we must get to the root cause of terrorism and get rid of the corporate owned, chickenhawk politicians who continuously get us into wars of choice, like Iraq. We must get off the oil nipple that has us addicted and exposed.

From our wallets to the gas stations to the oil companies to the despotic Mid-East dictators to Islamic “charities” to terrorists. Just follow the money. And there’s a lot of money in war. As Marine Major General Smedley Butler said, “War is a racket.”

Halliburton went from $22 to $74 between July 2003 to July 2006. Hmmm, war is a very good racket. The $20 million “retirement” package they paid Cheney was a good investment.

Now, before you right-wing nut jobs blow a gasket, read on. I absolutely agree that there are terrorists trying to blow up this or that here and abroad and inflict numerous innocent casualties, and they get extra points if the victims are Americans. We shouldn’t for a second stop trying to catch them.

And yes, that will entail reading private e-mails, listening in on phone calls and generally spying on suspected bad guys. All that is both reasonable and necessary.

But, it must be done within the law. The Brits managed to bust these latest bad guys lawfully. You’d think with such a pliant congress Bush and Company would have no problem having the laws changed to suit them. In fact, Attorney General “Speedy” Gonzalez is now trying to get laws changed retroactively to keep senior administration, CIA and military officials out of jail since the Supremes ruled against them in Hamdam vs. Rumsfeld.

Senator Arlen Specter practically begged them to ask for the eavesdropping laws to be changed last year. Instead, they ignore the law by claiming “executive power.”

Folks, that’s a slippery slope for all of us. More importantly, it’s not making us secure.

If you still think your king and his sidekick Dick have a handle on things, just go on to the next letter or go back to the “Price is Right.” However, if you are tired of the “elect us or we’ll get hit” stuff, read on.

Is it possible that perhaps, Osama bin Laden and Al Zawahiri at large gives the administration cover to do just about anything in the name of the “war on terror”? Uncle Karl’s spinning of fear has worked well for them so far. If Osama was in jail we could conceivably feel like the end of the “war on terror” was near and begin to pay attention to the Big Money give-away that has been the stock and trade of this administration.

But his being “out there” making video and audio tapes, tapes that still inspire many, means we’re still in need of the make-believe Republican mantle of protection. Could Bush and Cheney be that Machiavellian?

The 1.5 billion per day that we’re pouring into Iraq could have paid for the deployment of hundreds if not thousands of explosive sniffing machines at our airports. We could have 100 percent of our air cargo and shipping containers screened. But we don’t. If all that is OK with you, keep voting Republican.

Thomas Finnegan
Fayetteville, Ga.
thomasfinnegan (at) earthlink.net

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