[cgk]

From the CNN article here...

Another government source told CNN there was uncorroborated intelligence mentioning Rappahannock in Virginia. But County Administrator John McCarthy said he was puzzled by the reference to his county of about 7,000 people, "with twice that many cattle" located about 70 miles south of Washington.

Does that strike anyone else as a strange aside in a terrorism/security concerns article considering we are facing the first EVER case of Mad Cow disease in the US?

[Headfulofghosts]

Specific Intell, the threat was precise. This was probably along the lines of what happened, US intelligence has a watchlist, which has stopped about a dozen or so people from entering the US recently. The intelligence was probably gathered from a passenger list, or a maintence list, meaning maybe that someone had done something before the plane had been boarded, ex. food services, cleaners....., or even that someone was to be checking in.

[Dont Mention the War]

Does that strike anyone else as a strange aside in a terrorism/security concerns article considering we are facing the first EVER case of Mad Cow disease in the US?

No. It's common for small towns and counties with a lot of farms to compare the number of people to the number of cows or chickens or sheep in the area when discussing the size of the place to outsiders.