Playing politics with terror

Bill Press smelled a rat on yesterday's Situation Room. If only Wolf had smelled it too. Here Bill Press gives us his take on Friday's explosive -- "more aspirational than operational" -- homegrown terror arrests.

BILL PRESS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I think it's good news that they're arrested. And, this morning, I thought, well, this is really scary, and this is a great job that the administration has done, saved us from a great threat.

The more I read into it, and the more I look at it, the less I am convinced of that, Wolf. I mean, I think these guys were amateurs, at best. I mean, these were -- the Miami seven, they sound like the Keystone Cops. I mean, they wore uniforms; they wore turbans. They bragged to their neighbors about what they were doing. They stood guard outside of their warehouse.

I mean, they were hardly sophisticated terrorists or effective terrorists, if they were -- if they were terrorists at all. I think this whole thing smells of politics. I think this is the administration ratcheting up the war on terror again in the midterm elections. And it's no coincidence that this arrest came the same day that the bank records story appeared in the "New York Times..."

BLITZER: Well, we are going to get to that.

PRESS: ... and Dick Cheney went to Chicago.

BLITZER: Well -- but what you are saying is, this whole thing is concocted to score political points for the Bush administration?

PRESS: I smell a rat. That's what I'm saying.

BLITZER: Well, that's a serious charge.

Yes, it is a serious charge. And, Wolf, maybe it's something you, and the rest of the talking-head class, should look into before TERROR is incessantly screamed across the airwaves. Maybe, just maybe, your news coverage should have "presented a less alarming picture."

The rest of this fantastic and damning exchange after the fold.

Let's let Terry respond, but also respond in the context of what the attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, said today, among other things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We felt that the combination of the planning and the overt acts taken were sufficient to support this prosecution. And -- and that's why we took this action. There is no immediate threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, Terry, respond to what we just heard from Bill...

TERRY JEFFREY, EDITOR, "HUMAN EVENTS": Well...

BLITZER: ... because there are career prosecutors out there involved, FBI agents, senior officials who are obviously deeply involved in this operation.

JEFFREY: Right. You have the joint terrorism task force in that area of the country that went after these guys, Wolf.

But, really, I think to say that seven people who had taken a pledge to al Qaeda and were intent on killing many, many, maybe thousands, of Americans were amateurs were not a threat, and the whole thing was concocted by the administration for political purposes is, on the face, ludicrous.

How many people could seven amateur killers kill, Wolf, especially if they simply went down and bought guns? These people were talking about blowing up the Sears Tower, the highest office building in the United States of the America.

By the way, it reminds me a lot of the Portland seven case, where you had homegrown Americans who were disaffected with the country. They joined a fundamentalist mosque. And they, in fact, did come in contact with a member of al Qaeda. They first tried to go through China, to Afghanistan, to kill Americans here. They came back, and they plotted to go after either Jewish schools or synagogues and kill Americans there.

The FBI and the joint terrorism task force in Oregon got them first.

BLITZER: All right.

(CROSSTALK)

PRESS: What I'm saying, Wolf....

JEFFREY: We needed to roll these guys up before they kill...

(CROSSTALK)

PRESS: Listen, I'm glad they're in jail.

What -- what I am saying is not that the administration put it up to them, Terry. I didn't say that. I think the administration is exaggerating the importance of this, and timing the arrests today for political purposes.

JEFFREY: Well, Bill...

PRESS: And wait.

We have seen...

(CROSSTALK)

JEFFREY: They should have arrested them next week?

PRESS: Listen, we have seen...

(CROSSTALK)

JEFFREY: I mean, should they have waited until October to arrest them?

PRESS: Terry, let me finish a sentence.

JEFFREY: How many...

PRESS: Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Wait.

We have seen them do this before. What about those color-coded terror alerts that we used to have?

JEFFREY: Well...

PRESS: Every time there was bad news for Republicans, you would have had a color-coded terror alert.

JEFFREY: Bill...

PRESS: This was timed...

JEFFREY: Let me ask you a simple question.

PRESS: ... to distract attention from the bank records story.

JEFFREY: When should they have arrested these seven people pledged to kill Americans?

PRESS: Maybe...

JEFFREY: When? When? When?

PRESS: Maybe when they first found out about them...

(CROSSTALK)

JEFFREY: Not this year, because it's an election year?

PRESS: No, no, maybe when they first found out about them, instead...

JEFFREY: In December.

PRESS: ... of timing it for Dick Cheney's visit to Chicago and to deflect...

JEFFREY: Well, wait a minute.

PRESS: ... deflect attention...

JEFFREY: Right.

PRESS: ... from the bank records story.

(CROSSTALK)

PRESS: You can't tell me that this...

JEFFREY: Let...

PRESS: ... administration has never exploited...

(CROSSTALK)

PRESS: ... the war on terror...

BLITZER: All right.

PRESS: ... for political purposes.

BLITZER: Go ahead, Terry.

JEFFREY: Well, one of the reasons, in an investigation like this, they will detect a person they think is involved in terrorism, it takes a few months, or maybe several months, before they round them up, is, they want to make sure they get the entire cell.

They want to make sure they get everybody involved. They want to make sure they collect the evidence, so they actually can convict them in court.

For Bill to say that Alberto Gonzales manipulated the timing, come up with evidence of that, Bill.

PRESS: Listen...

JEFFREY: When -- you are saying that today...

PRESS: I...

JEFFREY: ... was the optimum day, politically, for these people to be arrested?

PRESS: I...

JEFFREY: Therefore, the Justice Department went forward? Are you seriously saying that?

PRESS: I am telling you, if you go back over the last -- since 9/11, this administration -- we just heard it on the piece before we came on here.

This administration, they have got one issue. They have got fear, fear.

BLITZER: All right. Let...

(CROSSTALK)

PRESS: And every time...

BLITZER: Let's...

PRESS: ... there's a political crisis, they ratchet up the war on terror.

(CROSSTALK)

JEFFREY: Well, Bill... PRESS: They have done it for five-and-a-half years.

JEFFREY: So, all of the FBI...

PRESS: They are doing it again today.

JEFFREY: ... the U.S. prosecutors, the Justice Department people, the local law enforcement that were involved in this, they were all corrupted in a conspiracy...

BLITZER: All right.

JEFFREY: ... by the Bush administration?

PRESS: No. Don't put words...

JEFFREY: ... to affect the election?

PRESS: No, no, no.

JEFFREY: They weren't all corrupted?

PRESS: Don't put words in my mouth.

JEFFREY: Well, who was corrupted, Bill?

PRESS: The attorney general is a political clone of George W. Bush.

JEFFREY: He was corrupted.

BLITZER: All right.