FBI Probes Leads on Election Terror Plot

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON - FBI (news - web sites) investigators have made new arrests and developed leads that reinforce concerns that terrorists plan to strike around the presidential election, officials said Saturday, even though the CIA (news - web sites) has discredited a person who told its agents of such a plot involving al-Qaida.



A senior FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some of the leads were culled from interviews with thousands of individuals that agents have conducted in the Muslim community.


The official would not be more specific, but said the FBI continues to have misgivings about possible al-Qaida intentions to launch an attack with the goal of affecting the elections.


Several people have been taken into custody recently on charges not related to terrorism, but officials are investigating whether they may have been involved in terror activities, said another law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20041023/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terror_threat

And the Wash. Post article:

No Direct Evidence of Plot To Attack Around Elections

By Dan Eggen and Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 23, 2004; Page A01

~snip~
But five weeks after the effort began, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials say they have found no direct evidence of an election-related terrorist plot. Authorities also say that a key CIA source who had claimed knowledge of such plans has been discredited, casting doubt on one of the earliest pieces of evidence pointing to a possible attack.

Intelligence officials stress that they continue to receive reports indicating that al Qaeda and its allies would like to mount attacks in the United States close to the Nov. 2 elections, and that such reports have been streaming in since terrorists blew up commuter trains in Madrid days before Spanish elections in March. Yet after hundreds of interviews, scores of immigration arrests and other preventive measures, law enforcement officials say they have been unable to detect signs of an ongoing plot in the United States, nor have they identified specific targets, dates or methods that might be used in one.

"We've not unearthed anything that would add any credence to talk of an election-related attack," said one senior FBI counterterrorism official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because authorities have been instructed not to talk publicly about the issue before the elections. "You can never say there is not a threat, but we have not found specific evidence of one."

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55597-2004Oct22.html


Flip-flop fear factor. :eyes:

[neomonkey]

1. I've tired of the "October surprise" rigamorale

But it seems they might be planting some seeds now that Idiot King's failed re-election bid looks them squarely in the eye.

[saigon68]

17. THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING

THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING
THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING

[banana republican]

21. THE REPUKES ARE COMMING,

THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING, THE REPUKES ARE COMMING,

[goforit]

22. DICK CHENEY IS SALIVATING.......He's ready to pull the trigger at us!

[spotbird]

2. In Florida terrorists are picking up absentee votes

from poor and minority neighborhoods and not delivering them to the Board of Elections. New Mexico Republicans are throwing Democratic voter registration cards away. In Ohio Ken Blackwell is disregarding the law and disallowing provisional ballots.

The terrorists are in the process of disrupting the election, let's get DOJ to investigate.

Did anyone doubt that they would start with the terra warnings now?

[soleft]

3. Could the discredited person be Vreeland?

:shrug:

[Steelangel]

4. LIES! There are TWO evidence of plots!

Check freepers' site and GOP's threats on voters, you fools (to FBI).

[AndrewJacksonFaction]

15. Send those threads to the FBI

[neomonkey]

5. I read your additional post (on edit)

And isn't it striking the congruence of conflicting stories?

What is more striking will be the media's fetishization of the first story and it's lack of attention to the second.

[maddezmom]

20. similar to yesterday's: * new line of attack against Kerry

and it was the same old 9/11 fear tactics.

[oneighty]

6. Oh for

crying out "WOLF"

180

[truthisfreedom]

7. bushco hopes the FBI is hamstrung by terror and stays out of its voter dis

ruption.

[peacetalksforall]

8. Link over to this...mention of Twin Cities, Oct 29 and more....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1143791&mesg_id=1143791&page=

[goforit]

23. Cheney would pick a weekday to do this, eh?

[Oilwellian]

9. If there's a threat of an attack....

Why is Condi traveling the country and giving stump speeches for Preznit Pubescent Pinhead?

[Amigust]

10. If there is an election attack, it will be pulled off by the same thugs

who engineered 9-11, and their headquarters is not overseas. imho

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

11. So will they be arresting Rove now?

Since it's becoming so obvious...

[shraby]

12. 20,000 hours of backlog on translating

interceptions at the FBI though. How can they possibly know one way or the other?

[RebelYell]

13. If the FBI investigates this like they investigated 9/11 (NOT)

they should just stay on the porch. They have zero credibility.

[wildflower]

14. More from the article (Heritage Foundation??)

...

James Carafano, a homeland security expert with the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, said there's little doubt that al-Qaida wants to send a message with an attack.

"I think they're probably less concerned with affecting the outcome of the election, whether Bush or Kerry wins, but it would be more prestigious, the capability to do something before the election and really undermine the confidence of the United States," he said.

Top government officials have warned since the spring about al-Qaida's desire to attack during the election with the hope of orchestrating something similar to the March commuter train bombings in Madrid. The bombings, which killed more than 190 people, were a factor in the ouster of Spain's former ruling party.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20041023/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terror_threat_2

[Amigust]

19. GOP Heritage Foundation's function is to shape public opinion

to move the country to the right. If fear at election time will do it, then it's in their purview. Bush usually gets about 3 points pop from a new terror alert.

[Demeter]

16. Arresting Cheney, Rove and Bush

for election terrorism could be very embarrrassing--but it needs to be done!

[tlcandie]

18. I think you are on to something!

Lock them all away in their bunker hideouts and allow them NO communication with ANYONE...no pens, paper, tv, phones and no touching or taking anything from them!!

Until it's all over and we won't see anything happen...