A CIA informant provided false information about an impending al Qaeda attack, but other intelligence sources reveal that the danger of a major strike by the group close to the upcoming elections is real, U.S. officials said.
"We are concerned because a number of different threat reports we've received over the past few months indicate terrorists plan to disrupt the democratic process," said one official with access to intelligence reports.
Officials said that since the spring, numerous information sources, both electronic and human, have indicated that al Qaeda is planning a major attack on the United States or on U.S. targets abroad before the Nov. 2 election.
snip
But officials said several threat reports from April and May have been found to be "a deception" designed to fool U.S. intelligence agencies.
The bogus source made statements that were determined by intelligence officials to have been "not credible," the officials said.
The bogus source said al Qaeda wanted to affect the democratic process in the United States just as an affiliated group did by bombing trains in Madrid on March 11. The attack, three days before the Spanish elections, killed 191 persons and prompted Spaniards to vote out of power a pro-American, conservative government.
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041019-103107-5967r.htm
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