to justify the NSA.

using terror alerts for domestic politics is even believable.

I hate to say it. Mexico and al Qaida had me going wtf over?

it seems a terrorist alert shows up, but when the terrorists actually do something, "no one could have foreseen this happening!!11"

to tell, finally, what's crap and what's real.

Which, of course, is all this was.

Which is a very big deal, especially for a lot of Americans in those countries.

and it's 100% bullshit.

Which you're entitled too, of course.

I'm not so certain.

It's overhyped BS to make the NSA feel (or look like) it has a justification for the billions that have been poured into it and didn't stop major terrorist attacks despite all of that funding and the privacy invasions.

They can't stop terrorists they've been warned about, now they want to pretend to take things seriously?

Who do you think they are fooling, because it isn't people with an IQ over about 50.

Visa sections are closed at weekends, but they are open for consular assistance.

I'm not getting into an argument about the NSA.

If you think there's a conspiracy behind this that's up to you, but you don't need to insult the people who are keeping an open mind about it.

I don't need to insult the people who are keeping an open mind about this. Considering the timing, it truly isn't necessary at all.

Not sure what you're trying to say, but let's just leave it at that.

There is such a thing as Al Qaeda. Or do you think that Al Qaeda is a US government imaginary creation?

intelligence personnel and resources TO Al-Qaeda that the line is too blurred to know where one starts and the other one ends.

but certainly a creation.
So much for having them on the run, seems like they have us on the run.

We certainly have helped a lot of their members considering that we still arm certain members, still provide "intelligence assets" and fund the ones overthrowing governments we don't like anymore (see the latest example: Syria). It's the who is running whom that is a far better question than "who is on the run".

What about it was specific?

All I remember reading was some sort of 'global' threat. I was asking myself what kind of intelligence they could really have obtained if they hadn't even narrowed it down beyond 'global'. Guess I only got part of the story, though.

Either way, it's probably BS.

I wish that they'd recycle something useful for a change. From maybe FDR's term maybe.

I'll go so far as to say it looks like an effort to keep up morale since they have been hammered so hard. "Oh, look, let's scare the American public so that the troops don't forget how important doing all of this shit is and so they don't take matters into their own hands and leak more privacy abuses."

I end up wondering who decides when and how to provide alerts like this, and why the alerts seemingly went away for so long once they ceased to be politically useful... and are now returning. Maybe they've been there all along and the change is that the media is telling us about this one? Hmm. I don't see an "uncertain" or "puzzled" smiley in the top tier selections....

...

It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

What really needs to happen, is for us to remove ourselves from the "uncivilized" parts of the world..

Just tell them we will buy their products if they happen to want to /need to sell them (through brokers they don't want to kill on sight), but until they can figure out a way to join the modern world and stop all the bullshit, they & their people will no longer be allowed to travel to the US, and US citizens will be barred from travel to & through their areas.

These people have ready access to about all the information they could ever need, in order to figure out how to have a civilized, working society, but until THEY choose it (or their people rise up and toss them aside), there's not a lot we can to do MAKE them different.

We CAN remove ourselves and out financial/military/commercial aid from them.

It seems as if many of those countries eagerly embrace a closed society, and like our own TeaBag folks, WANT to regress into "olden-times". LET THEM...but stay away from them. Eventually their own people will force the change necessary.

We have enough issues of our own, and should concentrate on them for a while.

The alert itself is just a standard "something might be up" travel warning, the type of which many countries issue regularly. It's far from the "EVERYONE WORLDWIDE IS A TARGET!" panic that news coverage of it claims.

It's not like it is unprecedented.

In Arab countries...not that IMHO it is different from an orange alert.

means anymore when listening to the Govt.

They also issued travel warnings for a similar range of countries which boil down to "pay attention to your surroundings and check in with the nearest embassy or consulate regularly," which any country issues if they get a feeling something might go down in another part of the world. Every country does that regularly.

Closing pretty much all the embassies in the Muslim world is unusual, yes, but the US has tended to err on the side of caution with its embassies more often lately.

That said, all of the above is a far cry from the media coverage which seems to be implying half the time that the State Department is saying any Americans not currently on US soil are doomed.

how conveeeenient.

Looks like the same burning hair conspiracy believers are having a hard time with containing thier hatred for president Obama again. It never ceases to amaze me that conspiracy-minded people are willing to believe the most convulated, complicated intricate schemes are the only thing that explains simple actions of this president. I hear Obama may have a bowel movement tonight before bedtime- we know it's really an attempt to force every American to eat human excrement for breakfast. I wonder if the disguised teabaggers are aware of how ridiculous they are when they pretend to care about the American constitution and the defense of civil rights.
Obama is coming to get us all if we don't watch out! The teabagger intention of all these accusations about the patriotism and honesty of this president is to convince progressive Americans to vote right wing libertarian or refuse to vote at all- due to the toxic partisan atmosphere perpetuated by hyperbole and lies repeated by teabaggers disguised as progressives.
Makes one wonder if there are limits to the evil teabaggers and thier paymasters will go to in attempting to usurp American elections and liberties.

I'm a helluva lot more worried about how many more liberties will be sacrificed on the alter of the fear of "terrorism" and mountains of money given to incompetents who promise to keep us "safe" but don't because they can't.

But I've been noticing some "If you see something, say something" PSA's on tv. I rarely watch, so I'm not sure if this is something new, or if they've been airing these for awhile now?

Has anyone else seen them, and if so, could it be related to the threat? I'm aware of the fact that the concern seems to be targets abroad, but still...

... believe anything we hear coming from that bunch of bumbling clowns.

Coming as it did just at the time large numbers of Americans are beginning to suspect the whole war on terror is just an excuse for the government to spy on us.

Plot foiled!

Sorry, we can't give you the details because it is confidential information, but honestly, we foiled the plot.

Now about that appropriation we asked for.


So apparently, killing Bin Laden didn't mean shit in the bigger scheme of things. Didn't even make a dent. Kill fifteen #2s in a row and the threat is greater than ever. Pumped billions into Afghanistan and we are still quaking in out boots. Now, it is mighty Yemen that we must hide in our basements over.

We are "winning" the war on terrorism only in the year preceding a general election.

All other times, we are losing badly.