Continuing Threat

[MavKikiNYC]

New York Cites a Terror Threat
By THOMAS J. LUECK
and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

Published: August 1, 2004

The New York Police Department, responding to new information that terrorists may be planning to attack corporations or large public institutions in the city, last night advised building managers and corporate security personnel to step up their procedures to guard against vehicles rigged with explosives and against chemical agents placed in ventilation systems.

The warning followed meetings on Friday night and yesterday between Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Pasquale J. D'Amuro, the assistant director in charge of the New York field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to Mr. Kelly's chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne.

Mr. Browne said the meetings were held to discuss the latest reports of a terrorist threat against the city, but declined to comment on the source of the new information. "The information is considered credible," said another law enforcement official, who insisted on anonymity. The official said the police and federal terrorism authorities, who have received similar threats before, were unusually concerned about the new information.

Yesterday's warnings appeared to be linked to the arrest on July 19 in Texas of Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed after she entered the United States from Mexico by crossing the Rio Grande and crawling through the brush.

According to several news accounts, she had an altered passport along with several thousand dollars in cash and an airline ticket to New York. CNN reported that she was charged with illegal entry, making false statements and falsifying a passport.

Tom Ridge, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security was scheduled to be in New York City today, and the law enforcement official said he expected Mr. Ridge to comment on the new information this afternoon.

But federal officials have been tight-lipped about the purpose of Mr. Ridge's trip, and would not say whether it was connected to any heightened terror concerns.

The new information was first reported last night by ABC News, which said it had learned from several law enforcement agencies that an overseas source, which the network did not name, had provided information about suicide attacks being planned by Al Qaeda in the city. The ABC report said intelligence sources had described a plan by Al Qaeda to move non-Arab terrorists across the Mexican border into the United States. She has admitted to no criminal intent.

Another federal law enforcement official said the woman was believed to have been on a terrorist watch list. He said she might have been sent as "a courier" to pass along either a message or documentation to someone in the United States.

A law enforcement official in New York said, "the concern was that she may be part of a team" planning attacks in the city.

The Police Department warnings, which were distributed in a news release to reporters last evening, said, "Intelligence reporting indicates that Al Qaeda continues to target for attack commercial and financial institutions, as well as international organizations, inside the United States."

Although the release did not say that new information indicated the city was more vulnerable than others across the United States, a law enforcement official, who insisted on anonymity, said last night that "it would be right to assume that there is particular concern" about large buildings and institutions in Manhattan. He said the United Nations was considered a potential target, as were large banks, financial institutions and company headquarters.

Another law enforcement official in New York said many companies and institutions had already been contacted, and that they were warned to pay particular attention to their parking garages and heating, ventilation air conditioning systems.

"We've notified security directors to secure HVAC systems, and parking garages in particular, because of concerns about a vehicle bomb," he said.

The warnings issued yesterday were far from the first concerning the use of cars, trucks or other vehicles for bombings. Recent intelligence reports have hinted that such an attack might be planned during the Republican National Convention in Manhattan, but it was unclear yesterday whether the new information suggested any timetable.

In its statement yesterday, the police department reiterated many of its previous recommendations to corporate and building security officials. It said the alert level city had not changed it remains at "orange," the second most severe level as it has through the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

[MavKikiNYC]

Dean's "remarks" demonstrate an absolute inability to assess the seriousness of this type of threat. He is unworthy of a place on the stage of any serious party in the United States. He is a total crackpot, and I have to say that I knew it since the first time I heard him speak.

Schumer's comments lead me to ask exactly WHO is calculating the potential political benefits of a terrorist attack? Exactly WHO is willing to exploit the issue of terrorism for political gain?

Campaign Dogged by Terror Fight
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Published: August 2, 2004


BOWLING GREEN, Ohio, Aug. 1 - John Kerry was supposed to spend Sunday traveling through small-town Ohio and Michigan, going to church and talking at rallies. But by afternoon, his campaign was also searching northern Ohio for a secure telephone line so Mr. Kerry could squeeze in a briefing on an issue that was overtaking the day: the terrorist threat announced in Washington.

Three days after he accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, Mr. Kerry, along with President Bush, received a bracing reminder about how the fear of another terrorist attack on American soil had shaped the contest and about how the most pivotal thing that could happen between now and Election Day was beyond the control of either campaign.

Campaign aides said they could not recall a contest fought against such an uncertain and unsettling backdrop since 1968, when Richard M. Nixon and Hubert H. Humphrey battled as an increasingly bloody war was being waged in Vietnam, polarizing Americans at home.

"In a campaign there are things you can control, and things you can't control," said Tad Devine, a senior adviser to Mr. Kerry. "You have to spend as much time as humanly possible worrying about the things you can control. We don't sit around all day talking about what color the terror alert is."

Yet the issue has charged the atmosphere, influencing everything Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry do these days, as was particularly clear at Mr. Kerry's nominating convention last week.

News of the terror threat on Sunday also stirred renewed suggestions from some Democrats that the White House was manipulating terror alerts for Mr. Bush's political gain. They said the alert had been issued just as Mr. Kerry emerged from a convention that was described by Republicans and Democrats as a success.

"I am concerned that every time something happens that's not good for President Bush, he plays this trump card, which is terrorism," Howard Dean, a former rival of Mr. Kerry for the Democratic nomination, told Wolf Blitzer on CNN on Sunday.

"His whole campaign is based on the notion that 'I can keep you safe, therefore at times of difficulty for America stick with me,' and then out comes Tom Ridge," Mr. Dean, the former Vermont governor, added, referring to the homeland security secretary. "It's just impossible to know how much of this is real and how much of this is politics, and I suspect there's some of both in it. YAAAAAEEEEEIIII!"

White House officials denied that suggestion, and other Democrats and Mr. Kerry's advisers would not embrace it. "I certainly hope not," Steve Elmendorf, Mr. Kerry's deputy campaign manager, said. "You have to take them at their word."

But aides on both sides say they are thinking about how the elevated alert level affects the election and about the possibility of an actual terrorist attack as they try to discuss the political repercussions of terrorism without being accused of doing anything as crass as discussing the political repercussions of terrorism.

Mr. Kerry's aides said he immediately embraced the security recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission and criticized Mr. Bush for being slow in his response, in part because of the possibility of more alerts or, worse, an actual attack.

Mr. Bush's campaign advisers have made clear that every reminder of a threat from abroad is also a reminder for voters of what they like about Mr. Bush and stirs what polls have shown to be one of voters' biggest reservations about Mr. Kerry.

Going into the Democratic convention, polling showed voters were much more likely to trust the nation's security to Mr. Bush than Mr. Kerry.

Mr. Bush is preparing to issue orders, perhaps as early as Monday, to put in place some of the changes recommended by the Sept. 11 commission. That is likely to put him at the center of the news, which was dominated last week by the Democrats' convention.

But as Election Day approaches, the political ramifications of the threat from terrorism are not as clear as they were even a year ago.

For one thing, Mr. Bush has been challenged over the past six months by reports from two commissions that have examined antiterrorism policies. Mr. Kerry has begun to seize on those reports to try to undercut Mr. Bush on the subject.

For another, a terror threat is much more sobering to those who live in New York and Washington, which includes much of the nation's political and news media ranks. At the same time some Democrats wondered Sunday whether Americans, after hearing so many of these threats, might begin to disregard them.

Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in an interview that the focus on continuing threats, three years after Sept. 11, was evidence that Mr. Bush was highly vulnerable on this issue.

"I think this is one of the sleeper issues of this campaign," Mr. Schumer said. "It's one where Kerry can show strength and at the same time show that this administration hasn't really thought through the war on terror."

There were signs of concern and confusion in both the Kerry and Bush campaigns on Sunday over how, or whether, to talk about the latest turn of events. Mr. Bush's aides did not respond to requests for comments, while Mr. Kerry's generally resisted talking on the record.

Mr. Kerry learned of the terror alert from James P. Rubin, a senior adviser and former State Department official. Mr. Rubin had received a call from Frances Townsend, the president's homeland security adviser.

At the time, Mr. Kerry was aboard his campaign bus, between stops to attend church and briefly shake hands with supporters in a shopping center parking lot in Springfield, Ohio. But he did not address the subject.

Kerry Plans No More Troops in Iraq

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Mr. Kerry said Sunday that he did not anticipate sending more American troops to Iraq and hoped to bring "significant numbers" home during his first term.

Mr. Kerry said, "I would consider it an unsuccessful policy if I hadn't brought significant numbers of troops back within the first term. And I will do that."

He made the rounds of the television talk programs while on a bus trip through swing states.

[madape]

Too bad Dean didn't get the nomination. It would have been a riot to see him blabber and flatulate in the glow election limelight. I think his insane opinions represent the majority of the party. However, he was viewed as "unelectable" by the caucas/primary voters. Instead, they nominated a man even more unelectable, in my opinion. Either way, same result. At least with Dean, we could all have had a good chuckle.

[chumdawg]

I watched that Dean interview. Wolf Blitzer, you could tell, was awfully surprised that he would make such a bold statement. He gave him chance after chance to take it back, but Dean pretty well stuck with it the whole way. Said that Bush has always tried to politicize terror.

Funny thing is, though, I'm not sure the Dems wouldn't have had a better chance with Dean. At least he stands for something. At least he has some balls about him. I predict a slow and painful death for the Kerry campaign.