Right on schedule

Isn't it funny how whenever Bush's poll ratings start to suffer, we start hearing about terrorist plots again?

Last week we found out that Generalissimo El Busho's approval rating was at a miserably low 44% -- which means that his support is coming only from his wingnut base and people who aren't paying attention; plus a few of the apologists who buy the bullshit that "he's keeping us safe."

And sure enough, now we hear about a terrorist plot -- an old one, to be sure, one we'd heard about last year, but a terrorist plot nonetheless -- and now there are indictments, in the hope that people will remember who's their daddy:

U.S. authorities provided few new details about a suspected terrorist plot at East Coast financial institutions last summer but said they were convinced there were active plans under way when the United States raised its terror-alert level last summer.

"This conspiracy was alive and kicking up until August of 2004," James Comey, the deputy attorney general, said in announcing the indictment.

The three men charged in the indictment were among the eight suspects jailed and charged in Britain last August in connection with the plot. The authorities identified the three men as Dhiren Barot, 32; Nadeem Tarmohammed, 26; and Qaisar Shaffi, 25. They are awaiting trial in Britain on terrorism-related charges.

A four-count federal indictment unsealed Tuesday said that the men conducted scouting missions from the summer of 2000 through April 2001 at the New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp Building in New York, the Prudential Building in Newark, N.J., and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington.

In the American case, each of the three was charged with conspiracy to use unconventional weapons in the United States and with providing material support to terrorists. If convicted, each faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.