To the Point

The Terror Alert, Pakistan and Presidential Politics

Presidential nominee John Kerry has been highly critical of President Bush, but his advisors say there is no evidence that the current terror alert was politically inspired. Meantime, Howard Dean has told interviewers -the administration is manipulating the release of information in order to affect the president-s campaign.- Based on four year-old computer entries and a -second stream- of intelligence, information on this latest terror threat came from the computer of an al Qaeda suspect captured last month in Pakistan. While that may be good news about Pakistan-s participation in the war on terror, today-s New York Times reports that militant Islamic groups are still training in Pakistan and launching attacks on US and Afghan forces across the border, and last week-s New Yorker reported that the Internet has become a virtual training camp. Making News: New al Qaeda Activity is Major Factor in Alert Soon after the terror alert at East Coast financial centers, came the revelation that it was based on four-year old computer entries. Now, officials talk of a -second stream- of confirming intelligence information, but won-t say more. Even members of Congressional Intelligence Committees say Americans have a right to be confused, even skeptical. Brian Jenkins, founder of the terrorism research program at Rand, considers the atmosphere of terror. Reporter's Notebook: Corporate America and the Security Alert This week-s terror alert was designed to protect American financial centers from another attack like the one that brought down the World Trade Center on September 11. Tomorrow-s edition of BusinessWeek magazine reports that, while Wall Street has been buttoned down, there-s another story for businesses outside New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Paul Magnusson calls it -alert fatigue.-