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January 27, 2005
Did We Scare Ya?
The whole Chinese terrorist plot thing in Boston was all a big hoax (via Peking Duck).
I've always been in favour of stronger security measures in the United States against the threat of terrorism. But the issue of public announcements of indefinite threats has always been a difficult one. Although authorities doubted the authenticity of the tip from the very beginning, the story did dominate media headlines for a few days, with no benefits to anyone. But as Graham T. Allison, an assistant defense secretary in the first Clinton administration, puts it:
“It's one of those situations where you're kind of damned if you do and damned if you don't,” said Allison, now a professor of government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
Unfortunately, Allison is right, and in this much more dangerous world we live in, this will probably not be the last time something like this will happen.
Still, this entire story, from beginning to end, had put a big knot in my stomach. Both for the cynicizing and divisive effects this has on Americans, and obvious personal sentiments about the motherland.
Posted by Kelvin at January 27, 2005 9:41 AM
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