CELEBRITY TERRORISM EXPERT

Always there to connect the dots on television or in news articles and opinions, the celebrity terror expert has all the right answers. It's a convenient gig, one filled perfectly by Peter Bergen.

Since it's now again an opportune time to whack on Dick Cheney's numerous frauds, Bergen is here to help.

"[A] 2004 CIA report, titled 'Khalid Shaykh Muhammad: Preeminent Source On Al-Qa'ida,' stated that 'reporting from KSM has greatly advanced our understanding of al-Qa'ida's anthrax program,' in particular about the role of a Malaysian scientist named Yazid Sufaat who was recruited by al Qaeda to research biological weapons," Bergen writes in Foreign Policy.

"Sufaat, a biochemistry graduate of California State University, Sacramento, set up Green Laboratory Medicine Company for al Qaeda in southern Afghanistan in 2001 as a front company through which it was hoped that the terrorist group would acquire anthrax and other biological agents that could be used as weapons.

"But what the CIA did not say in its 2004 report is that Sufaat was never able to buy or produce the right strain of anthrax suitable for a weapon. And so though KSM might have helped the CIA understand something of al Qaeda's anthrax program, either he had little understanding of the science of biological weapons, and/or agency officials who wrote the report were also similarly handicapped. In fact, al Qaeda's anthrax program was a big dud that never produced anything remotely threatening, a point that the CIA report is silent on."

This is very old news. Indeed, one could have read about it here back in 2006. (Milton Leitenberg originally ferreted out the information, not US intelligence services.)

One salient feature of the celebrity terrorism expert is they're always a few days late and many dollars short. However, for the layman, they are portrayed as right on the money.

In 2006, you couldn't pay people in mainstream journalism to write about al Qaeda's "dud" biological weapons program.

The celebrity terrorism expert is always ready to write that which is convenient, too.

Whichever way the wind is blowing, it's off to Nexis for a trivial search of the latest headlines, and -- voila -- you have your essay.

In May, Bergen was writing in the New Republic about the US Predator assassination campaign and how it had eliminated an alleged al Qaeda chemical weapons expert, named 'Abu Khabab."

However, there was one thing wrong. No evidence existed that 'Abu Khabab' had any experience in chemical weaponry. And the empirical evidence that exists right out in the public domain furnishes plenty of proof that al Qaeda's chemical weapons program, whatever there was of it -- if anything, was also a 'dud.'

"Abu Khabab taught hundreds of militants how to deploy poisonous chemicals, such as ricin and cyanide gas," wrote Bergen for the New Republic. "The Egyptian WMD expert also explored the possible uses of radioactive materials ..."

Yeah, right, Mr. Bergen. Good job.

At GlobalSecurity.Org, your host wrote in a Bergen takedown: "Practically speaking, if 'Abu Khabab' indeed had been training 'hundreds of militants how to deploy poisonous chemicals, such as ricin and cyanide gas,' he would have had to have been the world's worst teacher, an unmitigated failure and fool."

It's here along with links to numerous examinations of al Qaeda's alleged chemical weapons capability.

So whatever message needs a push, the celebrity terrorism expert is there to provide it.

This week, it's conveniently critiquing Dick Cheney and the CIA.

In May, it was for propping up the US government's Predator assassination campaign.

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Hat tip to Armchair Generalist.