Posted on 07/13/2004 9:32:15 PM PDT by AfghanIraqVeteran
The terrorist threat against the United States in the run-up to the November election is as serious as at any time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, acting CIA Director John McLaughlin said on Tuesday.
"This is about as serious a threat environment as I have seen since 9/11," said McLaughlin, the deputy director who took over on Sunday pending appointment of a permanent successor to Director George Tenet who resigned amid criticism of the agency's performance.
"The quality of the information we have now is such that we have high confidence that the nation needs to be on guard," McLaughlin told Reuters in a telephone interview.
He said the threats were not pinned specifically to the Democratic and Republican political conventions this summer but to the whole period before the November presidential election.
"It's related to this period during which the country is exercising its democracy, it's this period particularly in the run-up to the election, but it's always a mistake in the counterterrorism business to focus uniquely on a date," McLaughlin said. The attackers would strike when they are ready and not because of a specific date, he said.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, earlier on Tuesday told reporters that "the chatter and the texture of the chatter is the highest it's been since 9/11." Chatter refers to communications among terrorism suspects.
"There's a lot of members taking second thoughts about attending conventions," Roberts said, but added that he planned to attend.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge renewed public warnings last week of possible attacks by al Qaeda in the United States this year, but offered no details and said there were no plans to raise the terror threat level.
"Credible reporting now indicates that al Qaeda is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic process," Ridge said.
BLAME GAME
The Senate Intelligence Committee issued a scathing report on Friday that faulted spy agencies for flawed intelligence before last year's invasion of Iraq, which indicated Baghdad had stockpiles of banned weapons. No such weapons were found.
McLaughlin said the CIA had admitted the estimates were not all correct, and had done an internal review of sources, assumptions and spying methods before the Senate report.
"This is a town that loves to assign blame and if blame can be pinned on someone then everyone is happy to say 'OK now let's move on'," he said.
"I think that's the wrong way to think about it," he said, adding intelligence professionals had to figure out what lessons can be learned to improve their work.
There will always be some ambiguity to the question about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the war because of the widespread looting of potentially key information after the U.S.-led invasion, McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said he did not know what plans the White House had for permanently filling the CIA director post.
"At this point about all I can tell you is they have asked me to be the acting director," he said. "I'm happy to do this and if they choose someone else, I'll work with that person to get them established and launched."
?
Or maybe not.
Well....if so....why haven't they changed the "color code?"
The color code is about to be history. It is really a useless system that serves no purpose.
How many, many, many time have we heard "highest since 9/11?"
The phrase has become meaningless.
I'm keeping a close eye on the Bush girls. When they go for their "ski vacation" in Montana (in July). I'm heading for the mountains of Alabama with my woman, young'ns and my dogs. Oh yeah, and that damn lizard from college that refuses to die.
"The quality of the information we have now is such that we have high confidence that the nation needs to be on guard," McLaughlin told Reuters in a telephone interview.
On guard for what?
Duh! We don't know, but be on guard anyway.
With dip$#its like this at the helm, I really feel so much safer, don't you?
Bwhahahaha!
~~ On guard for what?~~
I don't know. I guess for sweaty arabs with wires hanging out of their parkas.
This is the 3rd or 4th time the threat has been the hightest since 9/11.
CDC Ships 'Chem-Packs' for Preparation
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
WASHINGTON - The government is quietly shipping stocks of antidotes against chemical weapons to states under a long-awaited program to boost response to a potential terrorist attack.
New York and Boston, sites of the upcoming political conventions, were among the first areas to receive the "chem-packs."
Within two years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hopes to have the allotments dispersed to every state.
"It's a quick way for hospitals to know they'll have the antidotes they need," Donna Knutson, CDC's deputy director of terrorism preparedness, said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.
The program was begun in part because there has been "an uneven level of protection across the country," added Steve Adams, deputy director of the Strategic National Stockpile Program.
Much of the nation's efforts to prepare for terrorism have focused on biological attacks. For example, the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile contains tons of drugs, vaccines and other medical supplies in storage around the country, so that any U.S. city could receive an emergency shipment within 12 hours.
That's probably plenty of time to react to an incubating infection like anthrax, but the ability to survive a chemical attack depends on immediate decontamination and rapid administration of appropriate antidotes.
http://itemonline.com/articles/2004/07/13/ap/headlines/d83q7jmg0.txt
I think we will know within 24 of an attack. I assume they will follow the same pattern of assasinating a leader (Northern Alliance head) before a major attack. I think we should watch Pakistan and see what happens in august.
"This is about as serious a threat environment as I have seen since 9/11," said McLaughlin"
And tomorrow will be even more serious than today. And the next day will be even more serious than that. And the following day will be even more serious than all the seriousness put together in the past two years.. And the day after that will be a double-dog-serious threat more lethal than every serious threat put together times 100, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I'm sure there has been some type of information acquired by our guys. Whether that is an increase in communications, recorded comm, more "suspects" entering the country than usual, etc. There has to be some indicator that would cause them to give warning. Granted, it may all be a ploy by terrorists. That is the game these guys play. One big successful attack such as 911, and they can milk it for years while our complacency increases to the point of ignorance, and they have to attack again to get our attention.
Does this mean I'm going to have to get MORE duct tape and plastic sheeting?
Heck, I have a bunch left over from last time.
[I never did quite figure out their purpose, but HS Secretary said to get them. Sooooo......]
LOL! Don't forget yer shootin' irons. They'll come in handy if you run out of food and have to shoot that freeloading lizard for supper. I hear they taste like chicken.
You ought to make sure the South Texas nuclear facility is in good shape before heading this way. If not, go west.
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