"Might" does not make right

[unixronin]

"The FBI has warned police that al-Qaida cells might use fuel trucks as weapons to attack Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, but officials stressed Thursday the warning was based on uncorroborated intelligence."

Yeah.  "Might."  A completely uncorroborated, unsubstantiated assertion.  And the Earth "might" be about to be eaten by a giant mutant space goat.  What security threat level is this -- lilac?  Teal?  Burnt sepia?

If you don't have anything to back it up except some analyst's unsubstantiated speculation, if you have nothing you can even give a reliability level on, this isn't security; this is scaremongering and crying wolf.  But then, a lot of it is about scaremongering, isn't it?  Scared people do what authority figures tell them to do.

Comments

[jilara.livejournal.com]

I saw this scenario proposed on a website not long after 9/11, giving truckers a "heads up" on possible things to look out for, such as suspicious behaviors on the road. It also mentioned truckers should keep an eye out for suspicious behavior from truckers, as there could be a possible scenario of trucks packed with explosives, etc. I'd say the alert level has gone to "gray" by now.

Funny thing about scaremongering...if you cry "wolf" enough times, people start to ignore it. I wonder how long it will take...