Fear Factor

[theknife]

among the Bushie's repertoire of scary stories to tell the population, in order to sell the "war on terror", was the myth of "sleeper cells" - groups of terrorists burrowed deep into American society, ready to rise up at a momen'ts notice and commit attrocities against unsuspecting population centers here in the US. as it turns out, like so much else we have been told in the last four years, this is bullshit:

for all the worry about Osama bin Laden's sleeper cells or agents in the United States, a secret FBI assessment concludes it knows of none.

The 32-page assessment says flatly, "To date, we have not identified any true 'sleeper' agents in the US," seemingly contradicting the "sleeper cell" description prosecutors assigned to seven men in Lackawanna, N.Y., in 2002.

Ashcroft, in particular, used this one to sell the Patriot Act to Congress and the public.

It also differs from testimony given by FBI Director Robert Mueller, who warned in the past that several sleeper cells were probably in place.

"Our greatest threat is from al Qaeda cells in the United States that we have not yet been able to identify," Mueller said at a Senate Select Intelligence Committee hearing in February 2003. "Finding and rooting out al Qaeda members once they have entered the United States and have had time to establish themselves is our most serious intelligence and law enforcement challenge."

yet another bogeyman that isn't there. let's bring out the next one:

And the report suggests that instead of actual sleeper agents, lying in wait, al Qaeda may rely on disaffected Americans or other sympathizers, who might pick easier, softer targets such as shopping malls.

and the moon might be a wheel of Camembert.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigat...=566425&page=3

[tambourine-man]

Y..y..you... you mean '24' isn't real?

[jcmd62]

there is no doubt al Qaeda wants to hit the United States

"Al-Qa'ida leadership's intention to attack the United States is not in question,"

worry about Osama bin Laden's sleeper cells or agents in the United States

al-Qa'ida has sought to recruit and train individuals to conduct attacks in the United States

"Our greatest threat is from al Qaeda cells in the United States that we have not yet been able to identify

"Finding and rooting out al Qaeda members once they have entered the United States and have had time to establish themselves is our most serious intelligence and law enforcement challenge."

the lack of evidence concerned him. "I am concerned about what we are not seeing," he said.

Wow!!!!!!You can cut and paste things entirely out of context, completely leave out any truth or important facts and make any article say just about whatever you can dream up in that paranoid pea brain of yours knife. You can cut and paste but your still a clueless imp.

The only wheel of cheese around here is rolling around that empty head of yours knifey, and the only bullshit is your cut and paste job that resembles an episode of Fantasy Island. You still haven't figured out that little piles of unbelievable bullshit taken completely out of context, then glued together with the standard heaping helping of liberal ignorance, only becomes a giant pile of unbelievable liberal bullshit.

Bad enough you instantly buy into and believe some reporters CLAIMS about a "secret" FBI report that is hardly substantiated or concrete evidence of anything more than some reporters imagination, but you even have to cut and paste only little bits that come close to supporting this infantile tantrum you are appearently going to throw for the next 4 years.

If you read the article with an open and unbiased mind, leave out the liberal whiny sore loser, "I hate Bushie's guts mentality, and most third grade elementary students would see words like "Maybe", "Unclear", "We believe" , "Limited reporting", and "inconclusive". Read the article in its entireity and the ONLY thing that this "secret" FBI report "concludes" is that "To DATE" the FBI has yet to "identify" any sleeper cells.

NO WHERE does it say that sleeper cells are MYTH'S, that they absolutely don't exist here, nor does it state that because our inept FBI hasn't identified any sleeper cells, once again "TO DATE", that this means we have absolutely NOTHING to worry about, they are NOT here and we should just stop looking. We all know that if sleeper cells were here our FB fukin I would know the minute they stepped foot on American soil just like they knew all about the 9/11 hijackers years in advance, but allowed them to kill 3000 innocent people because Bush put a Vulcan Mind Meld on them and brainwashed them into supporting his WAR FOR FREE OIL.

Furthermore Meuller says just a few weeks ago that he's worried about what we are NOT seeing. Now if the FBI not identifying any sleeper cells "TO DATE" means that they are myth's, don't exist, and are bullshit as you claim knifey, unlike the *cough* "secret" FBI document thats claims NOTHING of the sort, then what is Meuller "worried" about?

Couldn't be because he thinks the FBI couldn't pour piss out of a boot with the instructions printed on the bottom, and we pretty much aren't going to know about any sleeper cells until they strike again as they did in 9/11?

Do the Twist knifey...........or should we call ya Chubby Checker.

[theknife]

yer a good german jc, i'll give you that

but you allowed yourself to get suckered into the hype and since you don't have the conceptual skills to think your way out, i'll throw you a bone:

9/11 didn't happen because there was no Patriot Act or war on terror. it didn't happen coz there may be "sleeper cells" or coz we didn't know about Al Queda or comprehend the threat. it didn't happen coz the Feds didn't have the power to detain people indefinitely, charge people with laws too secret to make public, or search their book buying habits.

in short, 9/11 didn't happen because of some great revelation we have only now come to realize.....

9/11 only happened because basic existing functions of government failed; specifically immigration and airport security (as overseen by the FAA).

remember that JC, and perhaps you'll be able to frame a coherent line of thought on this subject in the future.

[Belle~]

theknife,

I tend to think one reason 911 happened is because no one *really* believed it could happen.

Kind of like now, no one really believes it could actually happen again.

[theknife]

Originally Posted by Belle~

theknife,

I tend to think one reason 911 happened is because no one *really* believed it could happen.

Kind of like now, no one really believes it could actually happen again.

i'm a little more pragmatic, Belle...the events of 9/11 transpired because INS let these people stay in the country and then lost track of them, and then airport security let them onto planes with weapons. it's no more complicated than that.

[multi]

you dont think US and british policy in the middle east over the last 150 years has anything to do with it.....then ?

[Belle~]

Originally Posted by theknife

i'm a little more pragmatic, Belle...the events of 9/11 transpired because INS let these people stay in the country and then lost track of them, and then airport security let them onto planes with weapons. it's no more complicated than that.

That's true, but you have to ask yourself WHY did the INS let these people stay in the country and then lose track of them, and WHY did airport security let them onto planes with weapons?

Could it be because no one ever really suspected we were in any real danger?
I believe America was asleep at the wheel then, and asleep at the wheel now.

[jcmd62]

Originally Posted by theknife

yer a good german jc, i'll give you that

but you allowed yourself to get suckered into the hype and since you don't have the conceptual skills to think your way out, i'll throw you a bone:

9/11 didn't happen because there was no Patriot Act or war on terror. it didn't happen coz there may be "sleeper cells" or coz we didn't know about Al Queda or comprehend the threat. it didn't happen coz the Feds didn't have the power to detain people indefinitely, charge people with laws too secret to make public, or search their book buying habits.

in short, 9/11 didn't happen because of some great revelation we have only now come to realize.....

9/11 only happened because basic existing functions of government failed; specifically immigration and airport security (as overseen by the FAA).

remember that JC, and perhaps you'll be able to frame a coherent line of thought on this subject in the future.

.....and once again you post nothing but your convoluted fantasies. No facts, no truth, not even a fictional "secret FBI File" this time that nobody but ONE reporter was able to get. You come here with this story, cut and paste a few lines out of context, leave a link to the 3rd page of the article because thats where your 3 out of context lies were from, and then hoot and holler and WRONGLY claim it's some smoking gun that proves Terrorist sleeper cells are a MYTH, that they don't exist now, and never have. None of which the article even remotely comes close to saying, when in fact it says that we are worried that we have been unable to locate any cells "TO DATE" as if we are sure there are cells here NOW!

Now you claim supreme knowledge of the events leading up to 9/11. What an EGO.

Why haven't you called the White House and told George that you have all the answers to 9/11. Exactly how, what and why it happened, you've figured out every mistake right down the last insubordinate FAA employee that REALLY caused 9/11.

Now you make up your own definition of "sleeper cells" in a pathetic attempt to climb out of this giant pit of complete non-sense you continue to stew in.

The 9/11 terrorists weren't "sleeper cells"? They didn't live here inactive until called to strike? They just flew over from Afghanistan that morning and said what the hell lets hijack 3 planes and fly them into American Buildings?

That bone you threw was your last bit of credibility. The Terrorists were indeed sleeper cells. They were SENT here with a pre conceived plan to lie in wait and remain INACTIVE until called upon to carry out that planned attack. They took up residence, hung out at local bars and acted like any other LEGAL immigrant, the whole time maintaining contact with those that sent them, while they spent a still UNKNOWN amount of time planning, preparing, educating, and collecting the tools they needed to assure their success.

You'd think you would tire of continually embarrassing yourself like this. Please do lecture me on framing coherent thoughts when you actually frame one yourself. Talk about a "Sleeper Cell".

Originally Posted by A Paranoid freak

WHY don't we have the 19 Hijackers on camera going through security? Oh yeah we have a pic of Atta doing this in Maine but not Boston or NY or DC, No cameras there? How about videos of them getting out of their cars. You know the cars with the quarans and the flight instructions for dummies.

C'mon floyd not again.

[theknife]

there's a sucker born every minute

[Sinner]

Originally Posted by theknife

there's a sucker born every minute

If you mean floyd I could not agree more.

Not sure what your point is on the fear thing tho, It is used everyday by almost all corporations and govenerment levels. Hell ABC uses fear factors to get you to watch their news. "Kids Go Missing" at a 11:00.

-A television commercial portrays a terrible automobile accident (the fear appeal), and reminds viewers to wear their seat-belts (the fear-reducing behavior).

-A pamphlet from an insurance company includes pictures of houses destroyed by floods (the fear appeal), and follows up with details about home-owners' insurance (the fear-reducing behavior).

-A letter from a pro-gun organization begins by describing a lawless America in which only criminals own guns (the fear appeal), and concludes by asking readers to oppose a ban on automatic weapons (the fear-reducing behavior).

"All other things being equal, the more frightened a person is by a communication, the more likely her or she is to take positive preventive action."(Pratkanis and Aronson, 1991)

Fear appeals will not succeed in altering behavior if the audience feels powerless to change the situation.

Fear appeals are more likely to succeed in changing behavior if they contain specific recommendations for reducing the threat that the audience believes are both effective and doable.

In summary, there are four elements to a successful fear appeal: 1) a threat, 2) a specific recommendation about how the audience should behave, 3) audience perception that the recommendation will be effective in addressing the threat, and 4) audience perception that they are capable of performing the recommended behavior.

When fear appeals do not include all four elements, they are likely to fail. Pratkanis and Aronson provide the example of the anti-nuclear movement, which successfully aroused public fear of nuclear war, but offered few specific recommendations that people perceived as effective or doable. By contrast, fall-out shelters were enormously popular during the 1950s because people believed that shelters would protect them from nuclear war, and installing a shelter was something that they could do.

In a similar fashion, during the 1964 campaign, Lyndon Johnson was said to have swayed many voters with a well-known television commercial that portrayed a young girl being annihilated in a nuclear blast. This commercial linked nuclear war to Barry Goldwater (Johnson's opponent), and proposed a vote for Johnson as an effective, doable way of avoiding the threat.

[RoBoBoy]

Originally Posted by jcmd62

.....and once again you post nothing but your convoluted fantasies. No facts, no truth,

jcmd, what's untrue about what theknife said? How is it untrue? How's it a fantasy?

It seems very elementary to me. And factually undeniable.

I'll repeat it for you to read again.

Originally Posted by theknife

9/11 only happened because basic existing functions of government failed; specifically immigration and airport security (as overseen by the FAA).

the events of 9/11 transpired because INS let these people stay in the country and then lost track of them, and then airport security let them onto planes with weapons. it's no more complicated than that.

[albed]

A partial truth, when used to manipulate the weak minded, is the same as a lie.

If all that was required was for INS to lose track of immigrants and boxcutters be allowed on airlines then 9/11 type attacks would have happened every day for years.

Using the term "let" repeatedly is deceptive by inferring that it was contrary to normal practices.

Calling boxcutters weapons is another subtle lie to manipulate you simpletons, their primary function is as a tool and they were generally considered tools.

"It's no more complicated than that." is probably just an unintentional lie by someone who can't understand something complicated.