Scared Yet?
Much of the coverage of the alleged plot to bomb the fuel pipeline supplying John F. Kennedy airport has stressed the "chilling and terrifying," "scary," and "very very frightening" nature of the plot, as Brian Stetler documented over at TVNewser. The Daily News, trying to squeeze as much juice as possible from the story, today put on its cover the tale of a Brooklyn waitress who served "the accused mastermind" – turns out that "Evil Ate At Table Eight!" And it didn't even tip!
I know, I know, I'm being flip. But someone needs to be: Much of the media have gone into classic scaremongering mode, and Public Eye is here for your daily dose of sanity.
First off, the caveat: I'm not trying to argue that we shouldn't take this kind of thing seriously. Of course we should. But these sorts of plots are now a sad fact of life. Instead of going out of its way to scare people every time a new one gets exposed, the press corps should look at the facts and provide some perspective. "Chilling and terrifying," in other words, doesn't quite cut it.
So, here are some things to keep in mind: Authorities were aware of the threat from the beginning. The plotters had no explosives and no date for the attack, and were a long was from being able to set one. Had the attack actually taken place, the damage would have been significant, but the loss of lives likely would not have been.
That doesn't mean this wasn't a serious threat. But it does mean we were not on the cusp of a major terrorist attack. Check out this exchange from Sunday's "Face The Nation," which sums up the situation a lot better than the frightening tabloid headlines have:
Bob Schieffer: Well, I guess the question that I would have, Mr. Commissioner, is was this just a group of sort of malcontents, weirdos who had some fantasy or were they really close to pulling off something very dangerous?[New York Police Commissioner Raymond] Kelly: Well, when you say close, it's difficult to say. You're not certain what it's going to morph into. But what they did do is visit Kennedy Airport on several occasions, take films of the airport. This one individual, Russell Defreitas, had in-depth knowledge of the airport. They made trips back and forth to Guyana and to Trinidad. They were meeting with people, discussing a plot. So it was a lot of manifestation of their intention to commit a terrorist act. Did they have explosives in their possession? No. But clearly there were explosives available in Guyana. And as I say, we don't know exactly what this case could have changed into, could have morphed into if they were able to successfully create a partnership with this militant group.