Again proving they're not really up on current things in the wastelands of Yemen, news that al Qaeda was threatening Wall Street recently gained no traction. It's next to impossible to frighten the native population when you're alleged targets are already despised throughout the land.
According to the items, published in the New York Daily News and the UK's Telegraph:
Wall Street bosses have been warned that al Qaeda has targeted America's banks and financial institutions for another 9/11.
Counter-terrorism agents fear some top banking executives may have been singled out for assassination attempts.
They have urged improved security amid fears that al Qaeda in Yemen may again try to send package bombs or potentially deadly biological or chemical materials through the post to bank chiefs.
I'll dismiss out of hand any rumors that al Qaeda in Yemen has a serious capability in chemical and biological weapons. The best they could do would be, perhaps, to mail packages filled with insecticide.
However, the idea that al Qaeda has hit upon the idea of sending bad stuff to the Lloyd Blankfeins and Jamie Dimons of Wall Street is rather hilarious. YouTube and numerous blogs of course, are now filled with video and the words of average Americans cursing them.
"Among the banks getting ... security briefings were said to be Goldman Sachs, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase and Barclays, according to NBC," continued the news.
Goldman Sachs is now commonly referred to in the US as a giant vampire squid "wrapped around the face of humanity."
And while it's good to know Homeland Security is giving pep talks to the bankers, reassuring them that whatever happens we'll bail them out and avenge whatever needs avenging, readers do see the problem.
At the New York Daily News one anonymous commenter stated it fairly clearly:
Ooooh, no, don't blow up Goldman Sachs! They care about all of us little people so much!
Essentially, the war on terror has lasted too long and had too many whoopie cushion alerts. For most people in the US it's a phony thing on the margins. No one even expects this administration, or any other, to get Osama bin Laden.
On the other hand, many Americans saw their jobs and immediate futures go up in smoke in 2008 due to Wall Street.
So Wall Street being in the cross-hairs of anyone doesn't roil the sympathetic fear juices like it should. And this news did not take off. If al Qaeda in Yemen's aim was to convince that it had some brilliant plan going, it achieved only the opposite for those paying attention.
A much larger issue, however,.and one which the national security poobahs in this country have yet to visibly grapple with or discuss, is the potential consequence of economic inequality becoming so great that all American business, not just the financial sector, is generally thought to be an enemy of the middle class.
If that happens, how do you get the locals to believe it's deserving of big national security efforts to protect it?
This post was published in an earlier edition at Dick Destiny blog, which everyone should read.
