The National Intelligence Estimate: We’ve Been Warned

By: Steve Yuhas

In what had to be the most underwhelming leak to the news media since Valerie Plame was exposed as a not-so-secret secret agent, the National Intelligence Estimate was treated by some news networks as the most important thing to cross the wires in a year.  While some gave the news of the estimate a “wow” with special sound effects and breaking news graphics, those of us who follow terrorism issues gave it a yawn.

There is nothing in the draft National Intelligence Estimate, which is a compilation of the conclusions of sixteen national intelligence agencies, that is new or that someone with even a modest background in national security wouldn’t expect or know after nearly six years without a terrorist attack against United States here at home.

Not to pooh-pooh the importance of what the intelligence community believes al Qaeda is up to these days, but credit the American people with at least a modicum of common sense.  The “revelations” made in the draft report, a report that is a compromise rather than a compilation, are hardly new and were certainly not the breaking news that some networks made them out to be.

The report had some good news for America inasmuch as there is very clear evidence that America is becoming a much harder target to get at and although the enemy keeps trying, and will continue to do so long into the future, the fact that so many threats have been thwarted and so many Jihadists killed or captured in Iraq - America is a hard target.  That said there are problems that America must face up to.

The draft report said, "Driven by the undiminished intent to attack the homeland and a continued effort by terrorist groups to adapt and improve their capabilities," our nation faces "a persistent and evolving terrorist threat."

Shorthand: Islamofascists want to kill us and are desperately trying to acquire chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in order to do it.  This is neither surprising nor new considering our enemy has been issuing Fatwas and talking for years about how they intend to kill us.  The news here is that they’re still hell bent on doing it and America has to be ready. Particularly since Islamic clerics declared all of these weapons Allah certified to be used against infidels.

Al Qaeda has probably succeeded in obtaining three of four vital tools needed to launch operations in the US.  Tribal areas in Pakistan have become safe havens for al Qaeda and their terrorist colleagues. Al Qaeda filled operational leadership positions in order to carry out attacks.  And third, senior leaders in the organization are replaced and there is a network almost like the one in place on September 12, 2001.

The leaked draft report is silent on what the other critical area is that al Qaeda has not yet achieved. 

Some will say that politics should not be involved with national security, but the two are inexorably linked.  Some Democrats believe the war on terrorism is simply a bumper sticker slogan and that threats thwarted and plots revealed are simply political maneuvers used by Republicans to “scare” America. 

But, America should be scared – millions of people who pray to Allah want to chop off our heads and blow up our cities.  If that is not sufficient reason to be fearful I don’t know what is.

Many Republicans are becoming just as bad because they are in the position of running for office after losing the Congress to Democrats under the illusion that America wants the war on terror to end.  Unfortunately the people fighting against us are not looking for a cease fire and are preparing to strike.  America is also not looking for an arbitrary end to the war - they are looking for victory so that their children don't have to fight people willing to blow themselves up for a few virgins and some honey after they kill innocent people.

While bin Laden and his cohorts are sitting in caves talking about the war against America, many in America have grown complacent and are buying into the notion that we are safe.  We’re not and if nothing else the fact that there are terror cells in America just waiting on a component or an order to carry out an attack should make everyone realize that this war is real.

As some people dilly dally around whether or not the war on terrorism is real – al Qaeda is convinced that it is and they’re preparing for another sortie right into America’s soul. 

Nobody knows when it will happen, but be assured – you don’t carry the hate that al Qaeda has for America around without doing all you can to let it loose on the American public.  All we have to do is listen to our enemy and the National Intelligence Estimate makes perfect sense, but it has been picked apart by so-called experts in such a way to convince us that it is either not true or so true that there is nothing we can do about it.

If we have learned anything since September 11, 2001 and the days following when upwards of 80% of Americans believed we’d have another attack within six months or a year we had to have learned that we have to remain on offense and that al Qaeda is a patient enemy.  Like following the trends of earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault we are overdue for a terrorist attack and given the timetable that al Qaeda operated on during the 1990s and into this millennium a new attack could happen any day.

The estimate proves what most of us know – that al Qaeda has not forgotten about America and nothing we do can make them stop wanting to kill as many people as they can.  It is time to allow the military to crush our enemies instead of playing with them and it is more than time for the President to talk to the American people in real terms in real time about what our enemy wants to do. 

Bush’s approval rating may be in the tank today, but imagine what will happen to his approval if we know al Qaeda has broken into America and we sit idle and do nothing about it?  Or worse, we keep with the status quo and falsely believe that we are doing all we can. 

We were caught off guard on September 11, 2001 and we should have learned from that attack that when the conditions are right and the chatter is up that we have to do more than put our toothpaste into a Ziploc baggie at the airport.  Today we have all the signs and every intelligence agency in America believes that a strike from our enemy is coming.

If we’re caught off guard again or if an attack comes from one of our open borders every politician that opposed border security or those that allowed the madness at the border to continue should be removed from office.  If an attack comes in the form of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons that can be traced to another nation – that nation should be decimated and America should be on guard for the enemy we all share. 

Steve Yuhas is a radio talk show host on AM 600 KOGO and may be reached at steve@steveyuhas.com or www.steveyuhas.com