Politics Kills

Juan Cole describes how the Repugs desire to steal John Kerry's "thunder" (more like a weak fart, but that's another story) at last year's Democratic convention by announcing the arrest of an al Qaeda-connected Pakistani may have contributed to the 7/7 London bombings:

For the sake of three year old intelligence, the Bush administration had helped blow the first inside double agent the Pakistanis and the British had ever developed. The British had been preparing a set of indictments and pursuing the investigation, in part by using Khan. They were forced to move before they were ready. Some suspects escaped on hearing Naeem Khan's in the media. Of those who were arrested, several had to be released for lack of evidence against them.

Muhammad Sadique Khan, one of the July 7 bombers, was apparently connected to one of the suspects under surveillance in early August, 2004.

Paul Krugman points out today that in America "truth is political:"

We're living in a country in which there is no longer such a thing as nonpolitical truth. In particular, there are now few, if any, limits to what conservative politicians can get away with: the faithful will follow the twists and turns of the party line with a loyalty that would have pleased the Comintern.

The Bushies started the "war on terror" for political gain, and they are perfectly willing to undermine it for political gain whenever necessary.