Homeland Insecurity

The Bush people continue to dribble out information to try and justify that raised terror alert/campaign stop led by Tom Ridge. Every time they offer up another tidbit, I can't help thinking, "Stop!" Today they're saying/repeating that the surveillance files were "updated" as recently as spring. I put "updated" in quotes not to be sarcastic but because it could mean as little as the fact that the files were opened, something that has been reported previously.

But what about that leak of the Al Quaeda turncoat? Condi Rice said the Bushies just gave it to the mean ole reporters on background. Tom Ridge said he doesn't know who leaked out. But now the White House is claiming vaguely that

"it appeared Mr. Khan's name had been first disclosed by officials overseas, not in the United States. In any event, the [White House] official said, the arrest of terror suspects, even when unannounced, is often quickly detected by their families and associates. American officials have denied news accounts that Mr. Khan was working as a mole, or an informant for Pakistan, when he was arrested."

In other words, the White House said: it wasn't us, it was someone else; what's the big deal of announcing an arrest in the press since everyone would know about it anyway; and he wasn't really a mole."

Wow, that's a lot of backtracking.