Now, this evidence, tied to the belief that Al Qaeida sometimes waits for years to prepare to strike, tied to the increased “noise” level that was recently reported, may have well justified the elevated alert levels. Like Kerry, based on what I know, I am not willing to make the accusation that this is a “wag the dog” situation.

That having been said, it is clear that the press conference, etc., was inept, at best. After all, Tom Ridge, et al., should have made the case, as above, that while the acts of casing the buildings were somewhat distant in time, in conjunction with the other factors, the increase in alert status was justified. By not making this case, they undermined their credibility and the credibility of the threat “ladder.” After all, while I’m unwilling at this point to make the “wag the dog” accusation, others are not so restrained, and I am, at the least, skeptical enough that I could consider changing my conclusion if more information leaks out.

The Department of Homeland Security, to be successful, has to be perceived as being non-partisan. The way that the information was handled only eroded this perception, even if that erosion was effected due to the Department’s ineptitude.

I think Prof. Wu is wrong, however, that no functional justification exists for the Supreme Court’s decision in Blakely. True, the Supreme Court did not itself articulate such a rationale. But the practical arguments against the sentencing guidelines have been made very effectively by a number of lower courts, most recently Chief Judge Young of the D. Mass.

Of course, even if the guidlines themselves are flawed, the result of the Court’s decision is still considerable disarray. But is a little chaos such a bad thing, practically speaking? By reserving final judgment on the federal sentencing guidelines, the Court has effectively opened the door for lower courts to experiment with different solutions to the constitutional conundrums raised by Blakely. This may well create some short term inconsistency, but that is the price we pay for pragmatic experimentation.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Can you suggest a better way to go about it?

And by the way, it looks like the information is more recent also:

“Khan�s information has been merged with other pieces of intelligence, including information gleaned after Pakistan�s arrest last month of a senior al-Qaida operative named Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.

E-mail messages that included plans for new attacks in Britain and the United States were found on Ghailani�s computer, the Pakistani information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said Monday.

But it was Khan and the information found after his arrest that were primarily behind the decision to raise the terror alert for the financial-services buildings to �orange,� or high.”

Via: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5591204/