Is this what democracy looks like?

Last week, I started hearing spots from the Department of Homeland Security on NPR, warning us that "the threat of terrorism still exists," that we needed to "remain vigilant," and "report any suspicious activity" to the DHS or local police. I wondered if this was an attempt to turn up the fear knob just before the primaries, in an effort to duplicate the "scare them into voting Republican" strategy that was so effective in 2004 when the DHS threat level kept going up and down like a yo-yo. What a sense of relief I felt yesterday when I realized that my fellow citizens were too smart to fall for that transparent ruse again! Then this morning, I was listening to NPR on the way to work and heard the breaking news that the Brits had foiled an alleged terrorist plot that aimed to blow up multiple aircraft bound for the U.S., committing "mass murder on an unimaginable scale." It sounded like the police had caught the terrorists on the boarding ramp. Now, however, it seems that the plan was in its "advanced planning stages," and I have to wonder about the timing and purpose of this announcement.

The New York Times quotes an unnamed counterterrorism official in Washington as saying, "We don't know whether there is a secondary group or another cell out there," he said. "We don't want them to know what we know is out there." So, why is this story all over the news? If you really want to find a "secondary group" or "another cell," wouldn't you want to keep the fact that you know what they're up to a secret?

On the other hand, if you were, say, a politician who was concerned that your party was in danger of losing the next election, you might decide today was the perfect day to go public with this story. I suppose you might think it would be a good way to distract voters from the unfortunate reality that your policies had made the U.S. - and the world - less secure, and to frighten them into "staying the course."