There was a staunch ally of the WOT in office at the time in Spain. He lost reelection when he blamed a domestic group. There is no correlation to this, besides the timing. Ridge said he was pressured to hype terror during the Bush Admin. He may have lied to sell books. I agree that the reactions here may be overly cynical- I don’t necessarily believe this is a DNC hoax, but i believe Obama is overly political, and his handling of this is looks odd. His national security bonafides are damaged goods. No matter what he does, he will goof up. He is now so concerned with goofing up, he will be too concerned with politics, and won’t do the right thing unless it has a political payoff for him. It is because of how he mishandled earlier attacks and/or threats. It is also because he acts like a thug, and is opaque and threatening. It is his fault he is not trusted.
I agree with everything you wrote and would add that I think that the breathless media coverage is their desperate attempt to try to make the administration look competent. I am very disturbed to see FReepers so quick to dismiss the underlying truth about the islamists just because of who is in the White House.