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Robert Scheer, meet Richard Clarke.

In yesterday's L.A. Times we have Robert Scheer giving us this...

Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?

Is it conceivable that Al Qaeda, as defined by President Bush as the center of a vast and well-organized international terrorist conspiracy, does not exist?

To even raise the question amid all the officially inspired hysteria is heretical, especially in the context of the U.S. media's supine acceptance of administration claims relating to national security. Yet a brilliant new BBC film ... argues coherently that much of what we have been told about the threat of international terrorism "is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians..."

Damn that Bush, cleverly whipping up this fantasy of a threat to scare people into voting for him.

Of course, the very day before we had Richard Clarke giving us this ...

In the next six years, Al Qaeda will launch terrible attacks on America's casinos, shopping malls, and rail lines. The federal government will intern tens of thousands of Muslims in remote facilities and issue national identification cards. The price of oil will spike to more than $80 a barrel, and rebel forces will launch a successful coup in Saudi Arabia... the American economy - not to mention civil liberties - will decline precipitously ...

Damn that Bush, ineptly bungling America's defense against the most dangerous threat ...

Hey ... Look, I’m as willing as anybody to blame Bush, the neocons, and all the damn Republicans. But as to what we’re blaming them for, can’t we get our stories close enough together so they might be considered to be coming from, you know, the same planet?