# Oh, 'Sama, you old crank yanker you....
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [May 26, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248 "2004-05-26T21:58:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248/1 "2004-05-26T21:58:36Z")
Didn’t we learn from Madrid that with the real attack, you get no chatter?
To think that electronic intercepts are anything but disinformation is to think that 'Sama (who barely avoided a tomahawk with his cell phone’s home address on it)is a putz.
'Sama is not a p[utz.
Per contra, all through Christmas and New Year they were flogging the orange, bleeding money and credibility, to no effect.
So, the question:
Is there any reason to believe that the purported “chatter”(asssuming it is not a total fraud) is anything other than the equivalent of “foil chaff” to divert a defensive missile?
Does it not serve to fatigue any possibility of \*real alertness, so that two months into a SIX MOTNH THREAT(!!!) 'Sama could ride a bicycle naked down pennsyvania avenue and no one would notice.
Is this not an inherent flaw in the wwhole “nationi mobilized in vigilance against the enemy within” hysteria implicit in the color codes in the first place?.
\*whatever that is, and however it would impact the evildoers…
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### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248/2 "2004-05-26T22:17:18Z")
What the heck are you going on about?
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248/3 "2004-05-26T22:21:05Z")
Pretty sure he’s saying that the presence of chatter is more likely a purposeful decoy, and not an indicator of an imminent attack.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248/4 "2004-05-26T22:52:52Z")
Could be. Then again, could not be. They can go bigger than Madrid. Either way, you certainly don’t IGNORE it when you have corroborated terrorist chatter and a bunch of sources.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248/5 "2004-05-27T00:47:59Z")
[Analysts Say U.S. Threat Warning Is Back-Covering](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=5&u=/nm/20040526/pl_nm/security_threat_politics_dc)
> [@](#):
>
> One former national security official in the Bush administration told Reuters: “This is more butt-covering than anything else.”
>
> Critics say the new threat warnings may also just be a ploy to shore up the president’s job approval ratings or divert attention from the increasingly unpopular Iraq campaign.
Abu Ghraib, What’s Abu Ghraib?
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### Author:  [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248/6 "2004-05-27T01:14:19Z")
kTo Ridge summed it up
“We want to reassure the american people that their government is on the job”
It’s win-win.l
they only have to make it till November, after all.
If the/re is an attack, hey, they warned us
if not, hey, thank god for their tireless counterinteleligence
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### Author:  [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248/7 "2004-05-27T02:26:57Z")
You’re already succumbing to The Mindfuck™…go about your business, and you’ll be better off.
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### Author:  [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248/8 "2004-05-27T02:34:51Z")
Off topic: I like the idea of terrorist “chatter.” It makes them sound like cute lil chipmunks. Then we can send Secret Squirrel after them. 😃
On topic: You can’t really blame them even if they are just covering their asses. Imagine the outcry if the terrorists attacked and our warning was down to lavender.
Nobody can accept the fact that we can’t possibly keep everyone safe from everything that can happen, so we get a system that jumps at shadows to keep everyone appeased.
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### Author:  [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248/9 "2004-05-27T02:37:29Z")
Off topic: How come weird ass speculation threads like this get dozens of posts, but my thread about animal nature and natural defenses (or lack thereof) gets zip?
On topic: I’m not sure what the topic is about, but [insert something about some Bush employee making up things to cover his ass]
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### Author:  [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248/10 "2004-05-27T03:49:01Z")
> [@Zagadka](#):
>
> Off topic: How come weird ass speculation threads like this get dozens of posts, but my thread about animal nature and natural defenses (or lack thereof) gets zip?
Since yours was the ninth post in this thread, I hardly think that “dozens” applies.
This thread does have dozens of views, but that’s because there’s a betting pool out here in SDMB land. The bettors try to guess how much acid this particular OP will drop on any given night prior to posting. Looks like only two lids this time, but the night is still young.
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### Author:  [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248/11 "2004-05-27T03:57:32Z")
I thought ‘lids’ was a pot term…
If he`s on acid *and* smoking dope then we`re in for a long night.
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### Author:  [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-sama-you-old-crank-yanker-you/247248/12 "2004-05-27T03:59:53Z")
> [@John Carter of Mars](#):
>
> Since yours was the ninth post in this thread, I hardly think that “dozens” applies.
Give it time. While you’re waiting, look up “hyperbole” in the dictionary.