CIA reportedly thwarts al Qaeda "underwear" plot

By Michael J.W. Stickings

CBS News reports:

The CIA thwarted a plot by al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a new design, a U.S. counter-terrorism official tells CBS News. Officials, however, deny there was ever any immediate threat to the public.

U.S. officials tell CBS News the plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also built to be used in a passenger's underwear but contained a more refined detonation system. 

So there was a plot but no threat to the public. Hmmm.

In this case, as New York reports, from an AP story, "[t]he attack, which was reportedly timed to loosely coincide with the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death, was to be carried out by a member of Al Qaeda's Yemeni outpost."

Look, I don't want to be overly negative here. Obviously, some terrorists threats are indeed very real, and we need to take them seriously, and to have the intelligence to determine what is serious and what isn't.

But we've reached a point -- actually, we're long past it -- where it's become necessary to be suspicious of what are basically self-congratulatory government press releases that the media turn into major news items.

It's the government's fault for hyping up the threat for transparently political purposes -- think back to those silly color-coded threat levels under Bush -- and it doesn't help when you get lines like this, from a "senior U.S. official":

The recovery of the device was a team sport. It is another example of outstanding international counterterrorism cooperation.

Well, drinks all around. Go ahead and crush our civil liberties. You guys are the best!

I'd really like to believe that the government, and the CIA in particular, is looking out for the public's welfare and is keeping us safe through "outstanding" but not abusive counter-terrorism activity. But we can't really believe that without seeming foolishly delusional, can we?