Quotes of the Morning: The Other Shoe Falls

“In a speech today, Bush told members of the National Guard Association of a foiled 2002 Al Qaeda plot to fly a plane into LA's US Bank Tower, the tallest building on the West Coast. Bush said that the terrorist's plan was put into place after 9/11 but ‘was derailed in early 2002, when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al Qaeda operative.’ Bush added, ‘Subsequent debriefings and other intelligence operations made clear the intended target and how al Qaeda hoped to execute’ the plot, and helped other allies capture the ringleaders."
-Washington Post, February 9, 2006

“Aaaaahh! Another terrorist attack! Be afraid! Terrorists are a cowardly and superstitious group lot, and apparently they only attack on election years!”
-Skippy

“U.S. President George W. Bush disclosed new details on Thursday of a thwarted al Qaeda plot to use shoe bombs to hijack a plane and fly it into a Los Angeles building, as he sought to justify his tactics in fighting terrorism.”
-Reuters, February 9, 2006

“Um, say what? They were going to hijack a plane with their Nike’s? Somehow the made-for-tv movie of that is going to look a little silly. I have this image of the swarthy terrorist holding up his sneakers and a lighter and threatening to set the laces on fire if they don’t turn the plane around..”
-Skippy

“Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday he was blindsided by President Bush's announcement of new details on a purported 2002 hijacking plot aimed at a downtown skyscraper, and described communication with the White House as ‘nonexistent.’
‘I'm amazed that the president would make this (announcement) on national TV and not inform us of these details through the appropriate channels,’ the mayor said in an interview with The Associated Press. ‘I don't expect a call from the president — but somebody.’"
-Associated Press, February 9, 2006

“No one told the mayor of Los Angeles? The target city? Wow… They must have been so worried about this one that they kept it at the Federal level and didn’t tell the people who would be in charge of dealing with the devastation if something happened. So, while the people who actually would die didn’t hear about it, that’s only because our brave men and women serving in the war on terrorism are doing their jobs.”
-Skippy

“After a CIA official claimed last year that the government had ‘probably prevented a few aviation attacks against both the East and West Coasts’ since 9/11, John Pistole, the FBI's counterterrorism director, said he was ‘not sure what [the CIA] was referring to.’"
-New York Daily News, June 17, 2004

“What? The FBI’s counterterrorism director didn’t know about it either? Is Dubya the only one who hears about this stuff? And where did he get his information? I mean, the voices in your head really aren’t sufficient as evidence in a court of law. There is just one little thing about this story.. Hmm.. What is it?...”
-Skippy

“Q Scott, I wanted to just ask a follow-up about the LA plot. Is there something missing from this story, a practical application, a few facts? Because if you want to commandeer a plane and fly it into a tower, if you used shoe bombs, wouldn't you blow off the cockpit? Or is there something missing from this story?
MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know what you're referring to about missing. I mean, I think we provided you a detailed briefing earlier today about the plot. And Fran Townsend, our Homeland Security Advisor, talked about it. So I'm not sure what you're suggesting it.
Q Think about it, if you're wearing shoe bombs, you either blow off your feet or you blow off the front of the airplane.”
-Press Gaggle with Scott McClellan, February 9, 2006

“Well, the Great Shoe Terror of 2002 may be over, but there are still those out there who are working to defeat our national security. Luckily we are fingering some of those people right now and will be able to stop their insidious influence.”
-Skippy

“Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been ‘authorized’ by Cheney and other White House ‘superiors’ in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.”
-National Journal, February 9, 2006

“Luckily Dubya is going to get to the bottom of this and hold people accountable, just like he’s done with Karl Rove.. He’s been saying so for a while.”
-Skippy

“But I want to tell you something -- leaks of classified information are a bad thing. And we've had them -- there's too much leaking in Washington. That's just the way it is. And we've had leaks out of the administrative branch, had leaks out of the legislative branch, and out of the executive branch and the legislative branch, and I've spoken out consistently against them and I want to know who the leakers are.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, September 30, 2003