election weren't three months away?  I'm suspicious.

Did you listen to Tom Ridge's briefing?  We have SPECIFIC INTELLIGENCE, even down to which buildings are being targeted, from multiple credible sources.  Everybody has been whining that Homeland Security alerts have been too general, and thus not helpful.  When we finally get specific, useful intelligence IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NEGLIGENT FOR THEM NOT TO ANNOUNCE IT.  And they didn't raise the terror alert everywhere, just at the pertinent targets.  Seems proper to me.
 Try to not let your hatred for Bush cloud your judgement.

The problem we are getting into now is the "Boy Who Cried Wolf" syndrome.  This one is differentiated from all of the others by the specificity of the targets and the potential weapons to be used.  I suspect that it is based on legitimate intelligence info.

The last few alerts prior to this one, however, were extremely suspicious in their timing, and had no actionable value, other than to elevate the fear level.  I have no doubt that the Administration hasn't any qualms about using these alerts to keep the public on edge about terrorism.  However, now, when they appear to have real info, people are skeptical because of prior misuse of the alerts.

the administration of playing politics when it acts on fresh intelligence.

intelligence, if they in fact even have fresh intelligence...(remember WMD's), they are reporting an increased level of alertness due to reported increase in the volume of "buzz" in the terrorist community. Acting, would be actually going after a terrorist cell and destroying or arresting it. In my opinion, the alert meter does little if nothing to deter terrorism, and may in fact give them a new weapon. For example, if Wall Street gets shut down for a week or two because of threats, or even the "buzz", the terrorists will have succeeded in disrupting capitalism and democracy without firing a shot or detonating a single bomb.

It is very possible that terrorists are learning how to use disinformation to cause us to react.  They are certainly smart enough to study our reaction and plan on how to accomplish their goals.
    There has been a lot of debate about whether the colored alert system is effective.  I personally hope that it is 100% effective in preventing a major terrorist act.

Also they don't know if this is a plan in the works or an old plan....Elections does play a role in this don't fool yourselves, and get ready for the negative campaigning and the ugliest part of the elections...ya know DC is Hollywood for the ugly!
I'm originally from DC I know all the political games I grew up watching it. It's more televised on the East Coast though.

"in war-time, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies"  Winston Churchill

Anyone who hasn't read Anthony Cave Brown's monumental work "Bodyguard of Lies" IMHO really doesn't have a clue as to what goes on in the intelligence & counter intelligence process.  Sometime you need to listen to what is not being said just as much as to what is said. A simplistic example of this might be if you knew the enemy was going to strike five places and four were hard to guard but one was very easy to guard you might only mention the four so as to push the enemy to strike the fifth place so that you stood a better chance of nabbing them.  my .02

-- Modified on 8/3/2004 4:50:27 AM

-- Modified on 8/3/2004 4:52:33 AM

Due to the popular (and even fun) sport of Bush-bashing, pretty much anything Homeland Security says will be scoffed at by a certain segment of our society.  You can be skeptical, but I would pay close attention to these warnings if I lived near the affected areas.

Look if you truely believe in your heart that bush would use terrorism alerts a some kind of election strategy then your probabaly a die hard Kerry or anybody but bush supporter. But I have a couple of questions for you.

 1 Do you think it possible in this day and age that it could
   be kept secret? even with a left leaning 24 hour a day
   media? ( OK maybe FOX would let it slide )

 2 What would the point be, The alerts don't help either party?
   but if there is an attack and they failed to notify us
   because they had intel then we should hold the president
   accountable.

As for negative campaigning, I don't think calling someones record of voting into question, negative campaigning. It shows how they intend to govern. Calling Kerry a liberal seems to offend his supporters but thats his record.
Call bush a conservative (not entirely accurate) but he'll happily accept.

... this alert was not based on buzz/traffic intercepts like others, according to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, but on specifc information.  Parts of the information was known for a couple of years.  Some other pieces came into place 36 hours before the announcement.

news source that I got my information from with other sources.  But what I heard as news on this story was that the information that triggered the alerts came mostly from a Al Qaida member that was captured in Pakistan in July and interrogated.  Apparently, according to the news source, they guy somehow was privy to secretive communications between Al Qaida operatives who were planning and coordinating the potential attacks.
    One concerns that I have about information is whether Al Qaida has learned to "plant" information to throw our intelligence off.  I hope that they are not that sophisticated. But who really know what their capabilities are?

guesses will be right and some will be wrong.  One problem with the alert system is that the wrong alerts can desensitize people to potential threats.  
    Homeland Security is walking a thin line, if they do not make some public attempt to warn people who can get hurt or killed in an attack and one happens, then they would not have done their jobs.  If they react too often and nothing happens most of the time, but one situation happens and a lot of lives are lost, then they will be blamed for lulling citizens into a "chicken little" complex.  They have a tough task on their hands and I hope that they succeed 100% of the time against some pretty long odds.
    One thing that the left and right should understand is that we are going to have the Homeland Security Department forever.  The only issue that I have with it is that it appears to be underfunded and has a somewhat less than clear charter.