White House Downplays Terror Threat. This One Must Be Real.

On the Yahoo frontpage there where two stories I wanted to diary. One was that the army is considering extending deployments again and relying even more on the reserves. The other was:

 US, Canada downplay Al-Qaeda camp graduation video

Lets examine some pieces of the story....

First, for those who havent heard anything about this:

US and Canadian officials Tuesday downplayed the threat of attacks after a US news channel showed footage said to be of suicide bombers graduating from an Afghan training camp.

AFGHAN training camp. Mr. Bush if youre reading, that refers to Afghanistan, the country that actually had something to do with 9/11.

So after years and years of us expected to be afraid anytime a republican mentions Al Qaeda or Homeland Security busts a nut over some light-brights, what does Homeland Security think about this tape that wasn't released by them?

There is no credible intelligence to suggest an imminent threat to the homeland at this time," said US
Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Kanocke.

So what is credible? Memo's saying Bin Laden determined to strike? Stuff gained through torture? How about someone saying they're going to come blow us up:

Mansoor Dadullah, brother of former Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah killed last month, could be seen attending the ceremony in pictures and a video broadcast by ABC and published on its website.

He addressed the seated recruits, as guards with rocket launchers stood by.

"These Americans, Canadians, British and Germans come here to Afghanistan from faraway places," Dadullah says on the video. "Why shouldn't we go after them?"

And just for a little reassurance from Canada:

"And they do have a limited ability to travel and get through our border systems," Stockwell (Canadas Public Safety Minister) said.

This obviously means we should feel safe, because we like Canada, have never had a problem securing our borders.