A Credible Threat & Credible Response

It was not surprising that an administration characterized by deceit and misinformation reliably touted each domestic terrorism-related arrest as preventing another 9/11 attack, whereas virtually all of the perps rounded up on President Bush's watch turned out to be ham-handed amateurs.

Well, times have changed and the White House and Department of Homeland Security have made it clear that they're not going to call press conferences as Attorney Generals Ashcroft and Gonzalez did and make hysterical claims for political gain while trying to scare the bejeezus out of us every time a pinch is made.

And so when federal agents slapped handcuffs on Najibullah Zazi (above, right) this week, it was done without bells, whistles and brass bands despite the likelihood that this Denver airport shuttle driver is the very kind of serious homegrown terrorist that we've been repeatedly told are lurking in our midst.

Unlike other wannabe terrorists arrested over the last eight years, Zazi was the real deal and not a malcontent with a big mouth. This legal immigrant from Afghanistan had attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, had explosives training and had taken a critical step that virtually no other domestic perps had -- he bought the chemicals needed to build a bomb.

As Zazi shows, domestic terrorism certainly remains a threat, but it is refreshing that not only did the undercover agents who sniffed him out do their job, but his arrest was treated appropriately by the Obama administration and not hyped to a faretheewell as in the classic miscarriage of justice suffered by Jose Padilla (above, left), who just happened to be the wrong Muslim at the wrong airport at the wrong time.