Pen-Elayne on the Web

Where There's a Hook There's Often a Catch

Okay, maybe I won't get myself taken off the NYCBloggers/RNN mailing list after all. After all, judging by the comments sections in the last couple of days (and Mark's blog and Anne's follow-ups on hers), we all seem to be having a certain amount of fun with their poorly-phrased leading questions. And besides, I just heard back from Mike at NYCBloggers in response to my complaint, and I hope he doesn't mind me reproing his e-mail: "Yeah, I know... the problem is that we don't make up the questions, the TV people do. And they're used to people writing in on their message boards, not bloggers. And they're looking for sound bites, not essays. So it's maybe not the perfect fit. We're trying it out, though. Please keep the feedback coming, as it will help us make this better." Coolness!

Meantime, today's question is a doozy: Is Bush Letting the Saudis off the Hook About Possible Terrorism Ties? To be kind, at least the question implicitly acknowledges the longstanding and well-documented cozy relationship between the Bush empire and the country that spawned Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and 15 of the 19 hijackers. But you know, if that's the case, why stick the word "possible" in there? I think I mentioned on someone else's blog that, given the publicity about that hand-delivered letter and all, I almost feel like the American media, and consequently the public, is being taken through a "good cop/bad cop" kinda deal here. "We can't release this info about our friends." "Oh no, we want them to see that we're innocent!" The "cops" here may be buddies with each other, but keep releasing statements designed to divert us from the realization that neither of them seems to be playing it straight with us.

Update: Wow, I was right, it is a good cop/bad cop thing. Via Mark Evanier (link at sidebar), this New Republic article that goes into a bit more detail about the content of the 28 pages. This is what I was talking about:

This week, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal flew to Washington for a hastily convened meeting with President Bush. Faisal publicly demanded that the 28 pages be declassified, but he had to have known in advance, and welcomed the fact, that his request would be denied--ostensibly friendly nations don't normally send their foreign ministers to meetings halfway around the world to be surprised.

Sounds pretty collusiveconclusive to me.