The headlines this morning were all about how Bush was going to defend the NSA wiretap program by giving examples of how it thwarted terrorist plots.

Sadly, Bush isn’t doing that.  Instead, he’s giving some details about a 2002 al Qaeda plot to fly an airplane into a Los Angeles skyscraper, but he’s giving credit to international cooperation.

The president said the plot was derailed when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al Qaeda operative. Bush did not name the country or the operative.

…But the White House would not say whether the 2002 plot was thwarted as a result of the National Security Agency program to eavesdrop on the international emails and phone calls of people inside the United States with suspected ties to terrorists.

So why is Bush bringing this up now?  Fear factor, my friends.  Straight from the playbook.