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US intel warns of potential al Qaeda attacks Monday: report
U.S. intelligence is warning of a possible terror threat for the day before the election next week, CBS News reported Friday.
Intelligence officials have told joint terrorism task forces about the possibility that al Qaeda is planning to attack three states on Monday, sources told CBS.
The states with the potential to be targeted are believed to be New York, Texas and Virginia.
The credibility of the threat reportedly has not been confirmed. But U.S. intelligence told counterterrorism officials of the potential threat out of caution.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/304288-us-intelligence-warns-of-potential-attacks-monday-report
11 replies
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Political manipulation[edit]
The lack of disclosure made the system vulnerable to manipulation by government officials. These attributes had been criticized by cartoonists,[14] journalists,[15] entertainers,[16] and security experts.[17]
The alert level was raised once in 2004, an election year, leading some critics to speculate that the Bush Administration used them for political rather than strictly security reasons.[18][19] In 2009, Ridge alleged in his book The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege...and How We Can Be Safe Again that top aides to President Bush (including defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and attorney general John Ashcroft) pressured him to raise the alert level on the eve of the November 2004 presidential election. Ridge refused. "After that episode, I knew I had to follow through with my plans to leave the federal government for the private sector," he said.[20]
In December 2004, the Homeland Security Advisory Council voted to review the color-coded system. One panel member suggested that it had outlived its usefulness.[21] In a public forum, Ridge conceded the system had invited "questions and even occasional derision."[22] Ridge also said that he had not always agreed when others pushed to raise the threat level. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment," Ridge said. "Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on [alert]. ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?'"[23]
On its terror alert page, DHS made clear that "Raising the threat condition has economic, physical, and psychological effects on the nation."[12] A study published in the January 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health found that the mentally ill, the disabled, African Americans, Latinos, Chinese Americans, Korean Americans, and non-U.S. citizens were likelier to think that the HSAS alert level was higher than it was, and to worry more and change their behavior due to those fears.[24]
The lack of disclosure made the system vulnerable to manipulation by government officials. These attributes had been criticized by cartoonists,[14] journalists,[15] entertainers,[16] and security experts.[17]
The alert level was raised once in 2004, an election year, leading some critics to speculate that the Bush Administration used them for political rather than strictly security reasons.[18][19] In 2009, Ridge alleged in his book The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege...and How We Can Be Safe Again that top aides to President Bush (including defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and attorney general John Ashcroft) pressured him to raise the alert level on the eve of the November 2004 presidential election. Ridge refused. "After that episode, I knew I had to follow through with my plans to leave the federal government for the private sector," he said.[20]
In December 2004, the Homeland Security Advisory Council voted to review the color-coded system. One panel member suggested that it had outlived its usefulness.[21] In a public forum, Ridge conceded the system had invited "questions and even occasional derision."[22] Ridge also said that he had not always agreed when others pushed to raise the threat level. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment," Ridge said. "Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on [alert]. ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?'"[23]
On its terror alert page, DHS made clear that "Raising the threat condition has economic, physical, and psychological effects on the nation."[12] A study published in the January 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health found that the mentally ill, the disabled, African Americans, Latinos, Chinese Americans, Korean Americans, and non-U.S. citizens were likelier to think that the HSAS alert level was higher than it was, and to worry more and change their behavior due to those fears.[24]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeland_Security_Advisory_System
