From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone.

Be afraid.

Be very afraid.

That's the message coming from the executive branch.

Last week, there was Michael Chertoff's gut feeling that the homeland is vulnerable to terror attacks this summer.

And this week, the White House released a summary of

the latest national intelligence estimate, or NIE. It reported that Al-Qaeda has regrouped in

Pakistan's tribal areas and distil the most serious threat to the United States. And it invoked

Al-Qaeda's namesake in Iraq, reminding us that that group was, quote, known to have expressed a desire to attack the homeland.

Critics pointed out that al-Qaeda in Iraq is a product of the war there and an independent entity.

But the White House insists that the group is taking its marching orders from Osama.

And as if to drive the point home, the Pentagon announced the very next day that one of the

group's leaders was in custody and happened to be the liaison between Osama and the Iraqis.

All of that occurred against the backdrop of another failed attempt by congressional

Democrats to force a troop withdrawal,

an attempt that featured the rolling out of cots for an all-night anti-filibuster session.

Chicago Tribune political reporter Mark Silva wrote that the timing of the NIE,

quote, follows a pattern of White House releases of select intelligence findings at critical

junctures in the war debate. A more direct way of saying it might be that when the news turns

sour on the war, the intelligence reports come out. These are reports that are classified, the most

...