Past experience should generate extra scrutiny of the latest (8/11?) terror plot; consider for example the concerns raised in this Crooked Timber post. There's already a "what did they know and when did they know it" aspect. Here's what White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said today:
Bush talked at length to British Prime Minister Tony Blair about the plot on Sunday and again on Wednesday
but the Times (UK) says:
[Blair] was told late last night, Barbados time, that moves to disrupt the biggest terrorist plot against British citizens were about to be launched. He took the opportunity of his talk with Mr Bush to brief him on the operation about to take place in London and elsewhere.
Not directly contradictory, but raises a flag. The Times account is more plausible, given the political costs to Blair of being on holidays while his ministers take charge during the alert; if he'd known something was up earlier, he might have cancelled the holiday outright. One wonders then what that Sunday chat was actually about.
UPDATE: Tony Snow is denying that there was an "overnight" briefing on Wednesday as the Times report might imply, but time zone differences and Bush's early bedtime make that statement difficult to interpret. Snow also indicated that some information about the plot was discussed at this videoconference on Sunday.
While the apparent political opportunism of the White House is par for the course (note their decision to talk up the GWOT angle of the Connecticut primary, knowing this was coming*), Blair's judgement in proceeding with his holidays is looking ever more questionable.
FINAL UPDATE: Apparently the move against the Listerino-fascists was made not because action was imminent, but because the investigation was about to compromised. Did someone blab too much? Note that John Reid, Dick Cheney, and George Bush all chose to make substantive comments about terrorism in the last few days, likely with significant knowledge of the ongoing investigation. Maybe that was enough to tip someone's hand.
*The strategery linking the talking-up of the terrorist threat and the Connecticut primary seems lost on the New York Times' Adam Nagourney:
The [UK] developments played neatly into the White House-led effort, after Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, lost on Tuesday to an antiwar primary challenger, to remind voters of the threats facing the nation and to cast Democrats as timid on national defense
ONE MORE UPDATE (since the story is progressing): White House reporters asked Tony Snow yesterday (Friday 11th) about the timeline --
But we do feel comfortable in saying that there have been detailed briefings of the President about an impending operation in Great Britain, and those began Friday, continued through the weekend and continued on through the day before yesterday, when, in sort of mid- to late afternoon, the President was advised that the operation was going to move forward.
Note the first briefing, presumably from Blair, is now last Friday. And as for Cheney's pretty transparent insider trading on Wednesday:
Q How much detail did the Vice President have about the timing of what was going to happen in Britain on Wednesday, when he did that conference call with reporters?
MR. SNOW: He did not know.
Q He didn't know anything? Or he didn't --
MR. SNOW: He did not know that there was an operation that was to take place. There was no anticipation of an operation that day. It's important to recognize that the comments that were made after the Connecticut primary were in response to the Connecticut primary, and they were not in anticipation of a British action. I can say that with absolute assurance not only with regard to me, but also the Vice President. That's why I mentioned the notifications took place after he had done his phone conference.
Q -- did say that he had been part of the briefings over the weekend.
MR. SNOW: Yes, but the briefings gave nothing about timing. They were general discussions of threat.
It's simply implausible that Blair would have briefed Bush on an ongoing investigation unless there was a sense that things were nearing a critical point.
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