May 26, 2004
New Warnings for the US
Ashcroft (DoJ) and Mueller (FBI) are to give a news broadcast today at 2pm edt on the newest wave of terror warnings (U.S. to Announce New Al Qaeda Threat). The report on MSNBC Tuesday night was that the intensity of warning approximates those prior to 9/11/01 (lot of good those did). The early reports are that there is no time, place, or method known at this time, which makes you wonder what the "warnings" are exactly. Something along the lines of "Hey guys, let's get together and do it" I guess. Anyway, they think it might be as soon as summer (which could be close as the equinox is 6/21). Unless summer is a code word for fall.
I am wondering why Ashcroft and Mueller are doing the press conference instead of the head of Homeland Security (Tom Ridge). Not sure what that signals.
The last time they increased the threat level, they said it was on strong intelligence. Unfortunately, I guess they pushed on their "high value" detainee too hard and he told them what he thought they wanted to hear. Unfortunately, what they wanted to hear wasn't the truth so it turned out to be a false alarm. Hopefully, they were a bit smarter this time. Maybe we will get more details at the press conference. I'm sure we will be told to be watchful, and I still have duct tape from the last time around.
Seriously though, I am concerned about an attack. It would be nice if the warnings were a bit less ambiguous than "We're going to get you." But then we are supposed to be watching for folks who smell of chemicals, have dangling wires from their persons (and are maybe carrying an atlas). They should be easy to spot don't you think? Well, at least if something does happen (and unfortunately it will eventually), at least we will have been warned.
So stay tuned at 2:00 edt and perhaps there will be more information by then. Hopefully the broadcast networks will see fit to cover this one. (They apparently didn't find Bush's speech on Monday "newsworthy" as none of them covered it - only cable news did.)
Update: Ridge is downplaying the pending threat, and is not raising the terror level. For an Administration known for its phenomenal ability to stay "on message" this is interesting. Is Karl Rove on vacation?