Conservatives love fear and stupidity (mostly stupidity).

In December 2003, a self-proclaimed scientist named Dennis Montgomery convinced the Central Intelligence Agency that he could predict terrorist attacks by pulling terrorist-produced "bar codes" from Al Jazeera television broadcasts. Using his proprietary technology, those bar codes could be translated into longitudes and latitudes and flight numbers. He claimed that terrorist leaders were using that data to direct their compatriots about the next target. The CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology believed Montgomery's assertion. The CIA in turn convinced the Department of Homeland Security to raise the terror alert level to Orange (high). Such an increase meant that on December 21, 2003, fighter jets were mobilized to patrol the skies over Manhattan. Thousands of heavily-armed police walked the streets of New York City in body armor. Dozens of French, British, and Mexican flights were canceled. Armed air marshals were placed on unspecified flights. Dennis Montgomery's predictions prompted a full-scale military response by a government already obsessed with hysterical fear. There was a discernible problem with such a response. Dennis Montgomery had no scientific training. His entire story about being able to predict terror attacks using secret bar codes was full-blown nonsense. No such technology existed in 2003 and no such technology exists today. You would have a better chance of locating a unicorn or a leprechaun, although I imagine that George W. Bush probably allocated funds for investigations regarding both mythical creatures. As Playboy Magazine reported yesterday, one man was responsible for a colossal and expensive scam.

There is a considerable back story to go along with this particular incident and with Dennis Montgomery, but you can read more about him in the Playboy article (http://www.playboy.com/articles/the-man-who-conned-the-pentagon-dennis-montgomery/index.html?page=1). Montgomery is currently embroiled in a number of lawsuits. He stands accused of bouncing a one million dollar check in Las Vegas. He and his wife filed for bankruptcy in June 2009. To summarize, Dennis Montgomery is not a trustworthy character. The more pertinent question should be asked. How did an obvious liar/buffoon convince the American security apparatus to act with such irrationality? The answer lies in the overall atmosphere of America under the incompetent administration of the learning-disabled hillbilly George W. Bush, which conservatives/Republicans have done their very best to preserve even after the hillbilly's departure. Hysterical fear coupled with a general disregard for factual reality made Dennis Montgomery's claim seem creditable, much in the same way that fear and a loose relationship with reality were responsible for dragging America into two senseless, endless, bloody, expensive, and unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. George W. Bush and his factually-handicapped acolytes in the CIA, the Department of Defense, and Fox News made such Dennis Montgomery-esque blunders possible by constantly manipulating information, pumping the general public full of nonsensical fear, and blatantly lying at every available opportunity. Dennis Montgomery was just one symptom of the underlying disease. America suffered the effects of a stupid virus for eight years and the source of the epidemic sat in the White House. It should be noted that the virus had no business being in the White House, after losing the 2000 election by 500,000-plus popular votes and cheating during a recount.

The entire Dennis Montgomery episode would be hilarious if it weren't so sad and embarrassing. Secret bar codes taken from television broadcasts? Hidden within those bar codes, secret geographic coordinates that represent future targets? Would a person be required to wear a tinfoil hat during the decoding process? Seriously, the whole thing is preposterous, but again, the Dennis Montgomery incident was a Bush Junior administration microcosm-absurd claims taken at face value, repeated as fact despite evidence to the contrary, and actions taken that ultimately brought about disastrous future consequences that could have been avoided. Stupid, rich, conservative white men are excellent comedic targets, with their general distaste for facts, evidence, and reality, but the laughing eventually stops when people notice the damage inflicted by a George W. Bush or a Dick Cheney. The Dennis Montgomery story might be worthy of a chuckle, but I certainly don't hear anybody laughing after the past eight years.