Terra! Terra! Terra!

Or, maybe not. Dubya's incoherent defense of wiretaps--how a putative plot to attack LA was foiled without the need for wiretaps--not only fails to convince, it is now getting the SOTU rowback treatment from the intelligence community.

courant.com | Some Doubt Seriousness Of Terror Scheme Described By Bush

WASHINGTON -- Several U.S. intelligence officials are playing down the relative importance of an alleged al-Qaida plot to strike the West Coast after Sept. 11, 2001, cited by President Bush Thursday in defense of his campaign against terrorism.

Bush, under pressure from Congress, offered for the first time a vivid account of what he said was the foiled plot to crash a hijacked commercial airliner into a Los Angeles skyscraper.

[snip]

Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism specialist with the Rand Corp., said Bush's account still leaves key questions unanswered.

"It doesn't really give us any more indication of whether this was a plot that was derailed or pre-empted, or a plot that was more in the realm of an idle daydream," Hoffman said.

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