CBS Uses Dix Case to Contend Terrorist Arrests Over-Hyped

Cyber Alert ^ | May 9, 2007 | Brent Bozell

[Kaslin]

On Tuesday night, following a week in which the CBS Evening News attracted the fewest viewers in decades, the producers decided the Katie Couric-anchored newscast needed an injection of an Olbermann-esque twist: The arrests of six Islamists, for plotting to use automatic weapons to murder troops at Fort Dix, matches the hype around previous captures which fizzled. Armen Keteyian framed his story around how since 9/11 "more than 400,000 names have come under one form of government surveillance or another -- from watch lists to wiretaps. But only a handful of terrorists have been convicted in cases with concrete ties to al-Qaeda." Keteyian highlighted how cases that "start out as larger, bolder terrorism cases, turn into lesser offenses. According to a study by the NYU Center on Law and Security, of the 550 terrorism cases since 9/11, only 163 individuals have been prosecuted on terrorism charges." The group's Karen Greenburg then asserted: "The conclusion would be that we've made a lot of hoopla about a number of cases on the grounds of terrorism at the beginning, and they haven't panned out to be terrorism cases."

     But Keteyian didn't bother to alert viewers to the Center for Law and Security's agenda. Greenberg, the Executive Director featured in a soundbite, is "co-editor of The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib" and "she is a former Vice President of the Soros Foundation/Open Society Institute," according to her online bio: www.lawandsecurity.org

     Amongst the Fellows at the organization: infamous Clinton sycophant and conservative-basher Sidney Blumenthal: www.lawandsecurity.org

     And on the Board of Advisers: Dana Priest, the Washington Post reporter who exposed the secret overseas CIA sites to interrogate terrorists: www.lawandsecurity.org

     The topic of the group's most recent forum, "The Hidden Roots of War: Christian Zionism and the Neocon Fundamentalist Alliance in America." See: www.lawandsecurity.org

     [This item was posted Tuesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     Keith Olbermann dutifully echoed the CBS spin, only with more of an edge as he derided the "extensive and entirely credulous coverage" and dismissed the capture: "The FBI has arrested six morons." On Tuesday's Countdown on MSNBC, he charged:
     "The flaw, though, in the breathless reporting of the purported terror cell: The Bureau [FBI] infiltrated the six person group after its members took video of themselves, practicing with assault weapons, brought the tape to a photo store and had it transferred to DVD. The details of the supposed plot don't seem to hold together that well either, though that did not stop extensive and entirely credulous coverage on TV, the Internet, in print today. The men supposedly had plans to gain access to the base disguised as pizza delivery guys, then cut the power somehow, then quote, 'hit four, five or six Humveees and light the whole place and retreat without any losses.' And take the tape of yourselves practicing and have it copied at FotoMat. In other words, the FBI has arrested six morons."

     Olbermann's dismissal of terrorist arrests as irrelevant -- or as an effort to distract from bad political news for Bush -- is nothing new, as documented in past CyberAlerts. From last August: www.mrc.org

     And from October of 2005: www.mrc.org

     Couric's plummeting ratings: TVNewser reported Tuesday, "Last week's CBS Evening News viewership was the lowest it has been since at least 1987, which is as far back as Nielsen records date. It's accurate to call it the smallest audience for the Evening News in decades." Only 6,050,000 watched Couric, compared to 8,100,000 who tuned into ABC's World News and 7,490,000 who watched the NBC Nightly News. See: www.mediabistro.com

     The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide a transcript of the May 8 CBS Evening News story which followed Bob Orr's lead piece summarizing the case:

     Armen Keteyian: "This is Armen Keteyian. It's here in the heart of the National Counter-terrorism Center where the tips are tracked, the seeds of homegrown plots like today's at Fort Dix are hopefully prevented. The founder of the Center is John Brennan."
     John Brennan, CBS News terrorism analyst and former Director of the National Counter-terrorism Center: "There are other groups like this that are developing the types of materiel and operational planning that's necessary."
     Keteyian: "In the wake of 9/11, more than 400,000 names have come under one form of government surveillance or another -- from watch lists to wiretaps. But only a handful of terrorists have been convicted in cases with concrete ties to al-Qaeda -- most notably, shoe bomber Richard Reid and Iyman Faris, sent here to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge. Instead, in the last six years, the Justice Department has turned its attention to what it calls 'preventative prosecutions,' in part because what often start out as larger, bolder terrorism cases, turn into lesser offenses. According to a study by the NYU Center on Law and Security, of the 550 terrorism cases since 9/11, only 163 individuals have been prosecuted on terrorism charges, 387 were charged with lesser crimes like fraud and immigration violations."
     Karen Greenburg, NYU Center on Law and Security: "The conclusion would be that we've made a lot of hoopla about a number of cases on the grounds of terrorism at the beginning, and they haven't panned out to be terrorism cases."
     Unidentified man: "This is the model for the post-September 11th era."
     Keteyian: "Many form a familiar pattern -- lots of fanfare, supposedly inspired by al-Qaeda, and built around undercover informants -- plots like the Miami Seven accused of eyeing the Sears Tower and federal buildings in Florida, and one man fixated on bombing a suburban shopping mall outside Chicago. It's far too early to tell into which category today's case will fall, but there's little doubt in today's world dangerous words and questionable actions bring a big government response, Katie."

[Kaslin]

Naturally they ignore it, because they came in under the previous administration

[Doctor Raoul]

Knock, knock...pizza delivery for Ms Couric...

[3AngelaD]

Thanks, Brent. An excellent example of why no one watches CBS news.

[Liberty Valance]

Thanks Bill. Can't wait until he's the
First Imam....er Man back in the White House.
I mean I know he "loathes" the Military
but he didn't have to bring in hit men.

[FormerLib]

The usual suspects line up to bury any story which tells the truth about the misguided Clinton Balkan Policy and/or the War on Terror.

[Red in Blue PA]

>>of the 550 terrorism cases since 9/11, only 163 individuals have been prosecuted on terrorism charges

Is there a certain percentage of terrorism we need to have prosectued? As usual, I fail to grasp their so-called logic.

The immutable truth is that it only takes ONE terrorist act to kill thousands. So even they should see that false positives are necessary if this is true.

[Kaslin]

Exactly

[Enterprise]

The MSM - terrorist fan boys.

[PghBaldy]

From the article: “only 163 individuals have been prosecuted on terrorism charges.”

“Only” 19 people flew planes into buildings on 9/11. 163 is a BIG number, IMO. Especially considering how small the Muslim population (citizen or not) is in this country.

[madison10]

They’ll dupe people into believing there is no danger...and then complain it was some President’s fault for ignoring the obvious warnings after the next terrorist attack.

[The Lumster]

I suspect that if we had been able to arrest the 9-11 hijackers prior to the event we would have thought they were a bunch of morons as well.

[YOUGOTIT]

Typical al-Qaeda members of the media. They want the terrorist to win at all costs. Just like the Democrats in the US Senate along with some RINOs.

[wideawake]

Obfuscation.

The plot was clear:

(1) Use one cell member's clearance as a deliveryman to get the drop on the gate guard, killing him.

(2) Have the six or seven cell members move past the dead guard.

(3) Have one of the cell members cut the power by disabling a transformer whose location they had already discovered and mapped.

(4) Have the remaining 5-6 cell members position themselves in areas where many soldiers and civilian employees congregated and open fire with illegally procured automatic weapons, killing as many soldiers as possible.

The cell had already recruited operatives.

They had already chosen a target and obtained maps of the target.

They had a proven method of getting a cleared operative into the Fort's guardhouse.

They had already participated in an intensive weeklong training session using live ammunition.

They had already illegally procured some of the weapons they required and were in the process of procuring more.

There is no way to argue that this crew was any less ready to create deadly mayhem than Atta and crew were on September 10th.

[3AngelaD]

Also I would ask these whackjobs how many American lives would have to be sacrificed on American soil before they would agree there is a problem that is not being exaggerated.

[gracesdad]

“The FBI has arrested six morons.”

I do have to agree with this part. Maybe dangerous morons, but morons nonetheless. Taking an incriminating DVD to a store is a classic stupid criminal move, sort of on par with writing a stickup note on the back of your bank deposit slip. Or dropping your wallet at a crime scene. And if these guys had actually tried to carry out their brilliant plot, it would have at least saved us the trouble of trying them. They would have been blasted to tiny pieces. Of course they also might have gotten lucky and winged a serviceman or two, so it’s good we got them now.

[3AngelaD]

Precisely. CBS news is a card-carrying member of the Distortion Factory crowd.

[soupcon]

Oh, c’mon...these guys were even more inept than the idiots in Florida.
Paintball and pizza maps, oh no!!
This is Chicken Little stuff.

[Humvee]

Maybe there have been so few “incidents” like this because our enforcement agencies have actually been effective in minimizing the risks to us.

[wideawake]

I suspect that if we had been able to arrest the 9-11 hijackers prior to the event we would have thought they were a bunch of morons as well.

Exactly.

If they had been caught, the smarter ones would have played dumb and come up with excuses for their behavior.

The morons, like Moussauoui, would have been held up as evidence that these guys were incompetents who couldn't have pulled off such an elaborate plan.

In their case there would have been substantially less evidence and no illegal weapons recovered.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

The leftist media want us to think that this is nothing, that there aren’t thousands of religious fanatics planning to kill as many Americans as they can. The media and the left will be responsible for the next terrorist attack.