Several times since 9/11, the Federal Government has issued warnings about terrorist “chatter” and indications that a major attack was in the planning stages. Without fail, these warnings have proven to be much less than meets the eye when subjected to scrutiny.
Which is why the latest report about threats of a summer of “spectacular” attacks should be treated with skepticism:
A secret U.S. law enforcement report, prepared for the Department of Homeland Security, warns that al Qaeda is planning a terror “spectacular” this summer, according to a senior official with access to the document.
“This is reminiscent of the warnings and intelligence we were getting in the summer of 2001,” the official told ABCNews.com.
U.S. officials have kept the information secret, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said today on ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” that the United States did not have “have any specific credible evidence that there’s an attack focused on the United States at this point.”
At first blush, then, this sounds like something not all that different from the reports we’ve heard before that turned out to be nothing.
But there is one very disturbing element to this story:
As ABCNews.com reported, U.S. law enforcement officials received intelligence reports two weeks ago warning of terror attacks in Glasgow and Prague, the Czech Republic, against “airport infrastructure and aircraft.”
The warnings apparently never reached officials in Scotland, who said this weekend they had received “no advance intelligence” that Glasgow might be a target
Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff declined to comment specifically on on the report today, but said “everything that we get is shared virtually instantaneously with our counterparts in Britain and vice versa.”
One of the biggest problems that existed prior to 9/11 was the inability of various agencies of government, and various nations, to effectively share information that could have prevented the attacks. This report, if true, indicates that the problem has not really been solved.
