Big Brother's Department of Fear -- Protecting The Election!

U.S. Worries Over Election Terror Threat

Sep 23, 4:32 PM (ET)
By CURT ANDERSON

WASHINGTON (AP) - As the election draws nearer, U.S. officials are increasingly concerned al-Qaida terrorists will attempt to mount a devastating attack to disrupt the political process.

In an unusual move, Attorney General John Ashcroft recently held a conference call with all 93 U.S. attorneys to spread the word that prosecutors and law enforcement officers should take every conceivable step to counter the threat, said two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the call.

Those steps include temporarily reassigning more FBI agents to counterterrorism investigations and having agents make more frequent checks with informers and key sources.

Authorities also are increasing what they call "overt" surveillance of terrorism suspects - letting the suspects know they are being watched - and they may arrest some on relatively minor charges to get them off the street.

The FBI also is checking new information gained from arrests of al-Qaida operatives, especially those in Britain and Pakistan, to see if any potential terrorist activities or warning signs in the United States have been overlooked.

The law enforcement officials, who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the United States still has no information indicating a time, place or method of attack.

Ashcroft's Sept. 13 call to prosecutors was prompted not by new intelligence but rather was intended to remind law enforcement officials about a steady stream of information pointing to an election-year attack, one official said.

U.S. authorities are concerned al-Qaida might try to replicate the influence terrorists had in Spain, where the governing party that supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq was defeated at the polls after March 11 train bombings in Madrid killed 200 people.

Democrats have accused the Bush administration of scare tactics on terrorism warnings - deliberately frightening the public to give President Bush a boost at the polls.

On Aug. 1, the government raised the risk of a terorrist attack to "high" on specific financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington, based partly on years-old intelligence. At the time, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge defended the decision, saying "we don't do politics" with terror threats.

The color-coded threat level for the rest of the nation remains at yellow, or elevated, the middle of a five-point scale.

Intelligence gathered by the U.S. government since early spring indicates al-Qaida wants to launch an attack that would equal or surpass that of Sept. 11, 2001, when 3,000 people died in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

"Recent intelligence suggest that al-Qaida may still be planning an attack, possibly targeting highly populated public places in large U.S. cities, in the weeks immediately prior to the elections," the FBI said Aug. 27 in a bulletin to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies.

The bulletin did not describe any potential targets or cities, and repeated that the FBI had no specific timing or method of such an attack.

Ridge recently said the attack time frame could extend beyond the campaign season to the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration.

There's still time to vote in my First Red Alert Poll in my sidebar — voting closes October 5th.

Here's some more links about the coming "election":

• Links to Articles Discussing It Not Happening


• One Possible Election-Day Scenario


• Just In Case Kerry's Elected


• Why It's Legal BushCo Is Above The Law


• The Legal Steps Taken to Delay The Election


• Preparing The Pre-Election Surprise Guest


• Why BushCo Ain't Leaving, Election or Not

Because the Biggest October Surprise this "election" would be No October Surprise.