Bureaucratic Terrorism

I always thought the whole Terrorism threat level system, with its Christmas tree colors, was nonsense.

What's my 85 year old granny supposed to do with this alarming information blared out by the government? 

What am I supposed to do with it?  Go out and start shooting suspicious looking people?  I wonder how many paranoiacs and chronic worriers this stupid systems has pushed over the edge...


Congressional Testimony Nonsense
Ronald Baily at Reason points to the uselessness of congressional testimony involving intelligence officials telling us that bad people are out there and they want to kill us...

OK, here's my problem. Of what possible use is this kind of testimony? It does no good for public safety because doesn't tell Americans what kind of attack they should be looking out for; it just sows generalized angst. Now why would federal security bureaucrats want to increase public anxiety?

(1) Call me cynical, but one possibility is that the heads of the various security agencies are trying to protect their budgets by scaring senators and public. More fear = more money.

(2) Or it's a cover-their-behinds move [...]

What We Really Need
I want an anonymous, silent intelligence Agency That Shall Not Be Named.  A combination of Mossad competency and cold-blooded KGB brutality.  I want an agency full of Odd Jobs who can cut the head off of a statue with a steel-brimmed bowler hat.

Mullah Killed by Exploding Kebab
Forget the niceties.  Did intel find something actionable, but prosecuting the perps will be tricky?  Kill them.  I want to see suspicious people around the world dying from mysterious poisonings, exploding cigarettes and unexplained car crashes.

"The World" can point its grubby little fingers our way all it wants, we'll just shrug our shoulders and go "meh." 

So let's get to work terrorizing the terrorists, and stop scaring granny with red alerts...