Easy to Follow?

Just prior to last night's State of the Union address, Redstate regular "AcademicElephant" reveals The Story I Would Like to Hear the President Tell Tonight.

Mr. Elephant explains:

"The details are easy for all Americans to follow from the cities to the heartland--after all, this plot was to be hatched in the middle of fly-over country, so no one is safe."

The story Mr. Elephant wanted to hear was this one:

ABC News has a story detailing an al Qaeda (Iraq) plot to send terrorists to the United States over the summer in the hopes of hatching an attack on our homeland

According to Mr. Elephant:

11 Egyptian men "disappeared" from Montana State University

The men planned an attack in "the heartland"

The men were apprehended and deported from the U.S.

"We" took the order from Ayman al Zawahiri to Abu Musab al Zarqawi to plan such an attack seriously, and started to watch for the pattern of behavior displayed by the 19 9/11 hijackers

However, the details apparently aren't so easy to follow. Mr. Elephant managed to get most of the key facts wrong.

The story Mr. Elephant links reports that coalition forces raided an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq and discovered documents describing a planned attack in the U.S. However:

No one "disappeared" from Montana State. The eleven Egyptians received student visas--just like the 9/11 hijackers--but never showed up at the university

The story says the plan was discovered in the early stages. It does not say where the terrorists planned to strike. The men had student visas to attend Montana State. That doesn't mean they weren't going to strike someplace else.

According the the ABC story, the men never actually entered the U.S., so they could not have been deported. (Why in the world would U.S. authorities deport them if they had them in custody?) The story does say the men were apprehended. It doesn't say where.

The story doesn't say that the discovery of the plan six months ago led to increased vigilance and the capture of the Egyptians. According to the report, "U.S. officials now require universities to closely track foreign nationals who use student visas to study in the United States. University officials must report international students who fail to arrive on campus or miss class regularly." (One hopes that this policy was put into effect long before the middle of 2006).

They say an elephant never forgets. In this case, however, we'll have to make an exception for Mr. Elephant and his "easy to follow" details.