Q: But what was the threat? You just said there was no threat.
McCLELLAN: John, after Sept. 11, we have to take into account the world that we live in. We live in a very different world than we did before Sept. 11. And the president is going to do everything in his power to make sure we are protecting the American people and to make sure that the people in areas that could be high-risk areas are protected, as well.
Q: Right, but there seems to be so many disconnects here. You've got a plane that was assessed as not being a threat, you've got 35,000 people evacuated, you've got a person who you claim is a hands-on commander in chief who is left to go ride his bicycle through the rural wildlands of Maryland while his wife is in some secure location somewhere, it's just not adding up.
McCLELLAN: Well, John, I disagree, and let me tell you why: You have highly skilled professionals who are involved in situations like this, in a variety of different fronts, from our Homeland Security officials to our National Security Council officials to our Secret Service officials and to others and to local officials, and they work very closely together. The protocols that were put in place were followed, and I think they were followed well.
[...]
When it comes to terrorism, Americans have two major categories of problem: those caused by actually existing terrorism and those caused by the difficult to sort out mixture of real counter terrorism, aggression thinly veiled as counter terrorism, showbiz counter terrorism (for example, positioning heavily armed police and/or soldiers in front of Wall Street during the Repub. convention) and plain old fashioned bone headedness we're presented with on an almost daily basis.
McClellan's not a particularly smooth operator -- I've watched his briefings and I'm not impressed with his ability to serve up expertly phrased bullshit. But, to give the clumsy devil his due even the most silver tongued mouthpiece would've had a hard time dealing with the simple fact that, on the one hand, DC was on alert as if Mechagodzilla -- chest mounted maser cannon fully charged -- was sighted lumbering towards the capital dome while, on the other hand, the Prez was enjoying a lovely time on his bike with, apparently, not even a cell phone call to disturb his flow.
Either something's an emergency (or, at least, legitimately perceived to be one) and your commander should be given a heads up or it's kinda not and there's no need to worry the fellow.
It's intriguing that this Cessna of Terror drama comes a week after news from Tom Ridge that a lot of the Homeland Security threat elevation business we were all grooving on a little while ago was not based upon anything much at all really (well, we can at least try to act surprised).
See:
<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20050509/009629.html>
....
Of course, terrorism is a serious matter.
Unfortunately, the US's response, for the most part, is either off-target and deadly (i.e. invasion and bombing sorties, real and threatened) or completely un-serious and designed to fulfill a sort of mega 'reality television' role within American life (see danger, see men in Kevlar respond resolutely and decisively to danger...oops, hold on, turns out ladies and gentlemen, it wasn't really danger after all...and now, back to 'Survivor').
.d.