9:36 CT - Starts with Alberto Gonzalez statement regarding homegrown terrorists. Toronto, Madrid, and London bombings were not sleeper cells, but turned on their own country ...

9:39 - The Haitian immigrant was in the US illegally. Hmmm ... wonder if Congress will do anything about that?

9:42 - John Pistole, Deputy Director of the FBI, joins Gonzalez. I wonder why Mueller didn't attend the press conference?

9:44 - Gonzalez won't answer whether all known cell members have been arrested; he won't comment, says investigation is ongoing.

9:45 - Asked whether the group had explosives and weapons stockpiled, Gonzalez stated that sufficient actions had occurred to press the case now rather than wait for them to arm themselves.

9:47 - Asked if they really thought these people could have pulled off a terror attack. Gonzalez replied they didn't get the materials and the weapons they wanted, but that we can't assume people plotting attacks are incapable of staging them successfully.

9:48 - The entrapment question came up, and parried by Pistole. He also states that there was no mention of ammonium nitrate during their interaction with the group. One of the individuals in the inidctment had worked at the Sears Tower.

9:50 - "Why would a group of men with different ethnic backgrounds ... get together? What do they have against the United States?" Aha! The "broad strata" meme appears ready to pop its head above water! Pistole replies that they had a "common ideology".

9:52 - Some of the indicted have criminal records. Big surprise.

9:54 - "These guys couldn't buy boots on their own? They don't sound like very sophisticated actors." Well, no kidding. Read the indictment.

9:56 - "Was the video camera supplied by the informant?" Didn't anyone there read the indictment? And these are the people that Bill Keller feels should control information about our national security.

9:57 - The last overt act in the indictment came in April; why wait? Pistole gave a vague answer regarding the timing. That question at least was interesting.

9:57 - "Providing material support" -- the reporters seem confused by the issue of material support. Their volunteering for al-Qaeda explicitly provides material support, namely themselves, to AQ. That, also, is explained in the indictment.

10:00 - Batiste initiated the contact between the agent and the group.

That ended the DC press conference. The Miami presser should start soon, and I'll pick it back up here. A couple of thoughts, though: the indictment really spells out in detail the issues and evidence involved. If reporters wanted to advance the story, they should have familiarized themselves with that document first. I had read all of the indictment and even reported on it before the press conference. Their lack of preparation should embarrass the press, but it won't.

10:12 - White House press conference beginning. The Fox News anchor wouldn't shut up, so I switched to C-SPAN. Right now, Tony Snow is briefing the correspondents on scheduling; the line-item veto will be the subject of tomorrow's radio address.

10:15 - Snow gets into some good-natured hot water by implying that a reporter might be a little old.

10:18 - Norm Mineta has announced his retirement. That sounds like good news.

10:19 - Going to questions: the first is on the NYT story. "'The program was a significant departure from typical practice.' So was 9/11." Snow notes that the story reports no violation of any law, using vague and meaningless language about "concerns".

10:23 - Stupid question of the morning: "This was a temporary program based on 9/11. Why is it still in operation five years later?"

10:36 - Snow is taking to the press corps this morning. He has been scolding them on misreading the article, not understanding the legal issues, and in general acting cluelessly. This is a public spanking. These people show up unprepared; it was obvious that none of them really read the stories on the issue.

10:40 - Miami press conference begins ...

10:43 - So far, just a rehash of the DC presser.

10:48: - Reporters keep asking whether these men constituted a real threat against the US. The point of the operation was to ensure that the threat got neutralized before it could coalesce. Whether or not they could tie their own shoelaces has no bearing on the criminality of their acts. Ineptitude is not a defense.

10:50 - The infiltrator was apparently not a law-enforcement agent, although it's difficult to say whether Acosta meant that specifically.

These press conferences didn't expand our knowledge to any great extent; the big news today is the indictment itself.

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» Miami Terror Cell’s Sears Tower Plot - Day 2 from Blogs of War
||Scroll Down For Updates Press conferences this morning should reveal quite a bit more about this story: U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is scheduled to answer reporters’ questions about the case at 10:30 a.m. ET, and later Friday, FBI Di... [Read More]

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» Dhimmitude from the press on 7 Miami terrorists from Right Truth
The press doesn't seem to understand that we are trying to PREVENT terror acts here in the USA. They seem disappointed that the 7 arrested yesterday in Miami had not actually COMMITTED any acts of terror. Well, that's the whole [Read More]

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» Dhimmitude from the press on 7 Miami terrorists from Right Truth
The press doesn't seem to understand that we are trying to PREVENT terror acts here in the USA. They seem disappointed that the 7 arrested yesterday in Miami had not actually COMMITTED any acts of terror. Well, that's the whole [Read More]

Tracked on June 23, 2006 4:06 PM

» Dhimmitude from the press on 7 Miami terrorists from Right Truth
The press doesn't seem to understand that we are trying to PREVENT terror acts here in the USA. They seem disappointed that the 7 arrested yesterday in Miami had not actually COMMITTED any acts of terror. Well, that's the whole [Read More]

Tracked on June 23, 2006 6:42 PM