WP: Old Data, New Credibility Issues

Wednesday, August 4, 2004; Page A01

The White House's failure to make it clear that the dramatic terrorism alert Sunday was based largely on information that predated the Sept. 11 attacks is a case study in the difficulty of managing such warnings for an administration whose credibility is a central issue in a difficult presidential campaign.

At one level, experts yesterday credited the Department of Homeland Security for narrowly targeting the warning to selected buildings in three cities, rather than raising the threat level across the nation. But they said the effort was seriously undercut by the revelation that much of the surveillance of those buildings took place three to four years ago.

"Their efforts to focus attention on specific areas and targets is good," said William H. Webster, a former FBI and CIA director who is vice chairman of the Homeland Security Department's Advisory Council. "But they obviously have a ways to go," he said, adding that "it opens the door for people to be suspicious and cynical."

Webster said the administration is trying to avoid appearing as if it is "crying wolf," and he felt the news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was "studied and not designed to raise panic levels." He also noted that terrorist acts often take years of planning, so a "three-year spread doesn't mean the intentions have changed; it just means nothing has happened."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37911-2004Aug3.html

would the targetted 'financial institutions' be, um, the world trade center towers?

thanks for the warning, george!

I mentioned this to my co-workers, too. I've found that people have bits and pieces of information, but need them to somehow be connected in a way they understand. I feel I did that today. All I'm saying is that it takes political/America junkies like ourselves to prod things along. Most people don't have the time to keep up on things, and those of us who love keeping up on this stuff need to get the information out there.

I let some people in my job training class know this. They were shocked! I was subtle, of course...I also sneakily threw in that if the Bush administration keeps this up, we'll be out of THIS job too, since we deal with the financial institutions supposedly targeted in this latest phoney threat. So many people have no clue what is going on. They just get the headlines, and rarely know about the story behind them. We need to let them know whenever the chance arises.

Hits the important points, and some good quotes. Well done, WaPo, you're starting to get the hang of reporting news again!

If this was NOT a political move, then his stupid statement about Bush's handling of the war on terror would have been omitted. It was a political ploy. I can see why Ridge wants to live.. his job is a joke. He has no power, he just reads the scripts handed to him by Ashcroft.

Caliphoto, your sentence reads, "I can see why Ridge wants to live..." Did you mean to say, "I can see why Ridge wants to leave..."
No big deal! Then again you could be correct that Ridge does want to live, most people do!

freudian slip? nya ha ha