GAO - Bush Has Failed To Protect America

By Cernig

Max Bergman at Democracy Arsenal points to a new report from the Government Accountability Office today (PDF). The title of the report pulls no punches - "The United States Lacks a Comprehensive Plan to Destroy the Terrorist Threat and Close the Safe Haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas."

And the report itself says:

al Qaeda is now using the Pakistani safe haven to put the last element necessary to launch another attack against America into place, including the identification, training, and positioning of Western operatives for an attack. It stated that al Qaeda is most likely using the FATA to plot terrorist attacks against political, economic, and infrastructure targets in America “designed to produce mass casualties, visually dramatic destruction, significant economic aftershocks, and/or fear among the population."

The report also says that Al Qaeda's central leadership in Pakistan has "regenerated the core operational capabilities needed to conduct attacks against the United States" and that "the resurgence of al Qaeda terrorists on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan now pose a preeminent threat to U.S. national security".

Meanwhile, the Republican nominee and the Bush administration - along with Kaganites, Kristolians and O'Hanlon drones galore - keep telling us that policing Iraq's faction fights and slow-mo civil war constitute  the central front in the War On Terror. Or that the pre-eminent threat to the US is now Iran.

Spencer Ackerman writes:

If, God forbid, something happens, the blood will be bin Laden's fault, but it will be on the Bush administration's hands.

Oh, I think the blood would spread further than that, Spencer.