[Culture] Manipulating the Bullshit Alert (the plot thickens)

[Benseraglio2]

IS THE PLOT CHILLIN', OR IS THE PLOT OLD??? YADDA YADDA YADDA Officials Defend Use of Pre-9/11 Data in Terror Alert Financial Institutions Continue Operating Under High Security By KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER, AP NEW YORK (Aug. 3) -- Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Tuesday the government concluded ''it was essential'' to publicize detailed surveillance documents and raise the terror alert, even though the intelligence information dated from as far back as 2000 and 2001. Speaking at a news conference in New York, Ridge said that because of the heightened security steps, ''We have made it much more difficult for the terrorists to achieve their broad objectives.'' Yet investigators said they are still trying to determine whether the individuals who amassed the information, principally on financial institutions in New York, Newark and Washington, are still in the country or plotting, or whether the plot was old. A White House spokesman said the intelligence was detailed and ''chilling,'' even if some of the information appeared to be old. Many of the paper documents showing the surveillance on the U.S. buildings were undated, meaning investigators are having to work backwards to try to match particular descriptions of security with known details of security at the buildings at certain points in time - to determine when the documents were created, the senior law enforcement official said. The federal government has said there was surveillance on the Citigroup Center building and the New York Stock Exchange in New York, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington and Prudential Financial Inc.'s headquarters in Newark, N.J. Ridge said there was no indication that terrorists had infiltrated the financial institutions themselves in order to obtain information about them. That view was echoed Tuesday by a World Bank spokesman, Damian Milverton. ''There is no suggestion that al-Qaida penetrated the building here at all,'' Milverton said. ... Top Bush administration officials said some of the surveillance was apparently updated as recently as January of this year. And they denied any allegations that the public release of the information now, and the raising of the terror alert, were politically motivated. They said the information was released now because it was just uncovered in Pakistan. ''We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security,'' Ridge said. ''Our job is to identify the threat.'' The surveillance actions taken by the plotters were ''originally done between 2000 and 2001, but were updated - some were updated - as recently as January of this year,'' Fran Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, said Tuesday on NBC's ''Today'' show. She gave no details but said that what is known of al-Qaida's method, ''they do them (surveillance) years in advance and then update them before they actually launch the attack,'' she said. But some Democrats have raised concerns that the timing of the release of the information had more to do with politics than with fears that terrorists were about to strike.   Ross Bender http://rossbender.org