THE WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON — Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer, challenging remarks by a top White House homeland security official, said Monday that “there is not a specific, credible, direct threat against Congress as an institution, or its members.”
Gainer was responding to statements Sunday by Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, who said in a television interview Sunday that the most recent intelligence on threats by al-Qaida included mention of the U.S. Capitol and members of Congress. Townsend said the information was not as detailed as it was for five financial institutions at the heart of the government’s Aug. 1 decision to raise the terrorist threat alert for financial sectors in three cities.
Several other law enforcement officials in Washington said Monday that they were not aware of any such information. Gainer, who has taken a series of aggressive steps, including a street closure and the addition of 14 vehicle checkpoints, to heighten security on Capitol Hill, maintained, as he did last week, that he has no information indicating a current threat to the area.
“That said, we continue to be concerned about cells whose strategy, intent and planning targets the Capitol and all that it represents,” Gainer said.