ny/nj/dc attacks planned before 2001
Remarks by Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge Regarding Recent Threat Reports [dhs web, august 1, 2004]President Bush has told you, and I have reiterated the promise, that when we have specific credible information, that we will share it. Now this afternoon, we do have new and unusually specific information about where al-Qaeda would like to attack.
new. specific. credible.
it’s entirely possible, and i don’t mean to suggest otherwise, that there is new, specific and credible information. but then there’s this…
Reports That Led to Terror Alert Were Years Old, Officials Say [ny times, august 3, 2004, registration]Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, said on Monday in an interview on PBS that surveillance reports, apparently collected by Qaeda operatives had been “gathered in 2000 and 2001.” But she added that information may have been updated as recently as January.
this does not inspire confidence in my intelligence apparatus… which, i guess, could be the point, as we’re talking about restructuring our intelligence apparatus this week. we did spend a couple days talking about the threat, the surveillance, and the operatives on the ground in america, though.
i suppose there are a couple scenarios here: either it took years to get this information through the intelligence pipeline, or the department of homeland security works on a longer timescale than most of us. to be a little snarky for a moment, if the intelligence agencies are now discovering the al qaeda target lists from 2000, we may be just about to discover a plan to attack financial institutions in new york and military institutions in washington dc.
i really do hope there’s more to this, and it’s not just another election surprise, but the credibitily gap is widening.