Tom Ridge warns nation of impending attack

By Frank James
Chicago Tribune

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge

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Ridge's statement during a news conference was as relatively free of details about the threat as similar alerts he issued in recent months. And he repeated that the Bush administration didn't have immediate plans to raise the threat level from its current yellow, or elevated, level.

The warning caused some skeptics to ask whether it was politically motivated to help President Bush's re-election chances. And Senate Democrats used Ridge's warning to criticize Republican leaders they said had put off Senate consideration of important homeland-security legislation to take up other bills important to the conservative business and social agenda.

Ever since deadly al-Qaida bombings in March of trains in Madrid, the administration has worried that terrorists might time attacks in the United States to occur before the fall election. There also are particular concerns that attacks could come during the Democratic National Convention in Boston this month or in New York a month later during the Republican convention.

"Credible reporting now indicates that al-Qaida is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the U.S. in an effort to disrupt our democratic process ... ," Ridge said. "We lack precise knowledge about time, place and method of attack. But along with (the CIA, the FBI) and other agencies, we are actively working to gain that knowledge."

Ridge said some of the current concern grew from investigations of recently arrested terror suspects in England, Jordan and Italy. Police recovered ingredients for explosives, such as ammonium nitrate fertilizer, chemical agents and caches of weapons, according to news reports.

"They had people ready to operate, and they had the munitions and the ability to conduct a terrorist attack," Ridge said.

Analysts blame the Madrid bombings, which killed nearly 200 people, with helping unseat Spain's conservative government. Madrid had supported the U.S. war effort in Iraq by deploying Spanish troops. The Socialist opposition, which won in an upset, kept its campaign promise and withdrew the troops.

In the months since, several Islamic militant Web sites have posted messages warning of renewed attacks in Europe if countries continue to support the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Ridge's comments yesterday followed a warning in May by Attorney General John Ashcroft, who held a news conference to warn of potential attacks in the run-up to the election. Ashcroft's warning was criticized at the time because he and Ridge appeared to take different approaches, with Ridge opting to be lower key.

Ridge yesterday also praised the administration's homeland-security efforts. He said, for instance, that his department's new operations center, which operates round-the-clock, was now connected to all 50 states.
 
The new center permits the department to receive intelligence in real time and to act on it immediately, he said. He added that it would make it easier for the department to share intelligence with other federal agencies.

The failure of federal agencies to share intelligence before the Sept. 11 attacks has been criticized by congressional inquiries and other investigators as contributing to the atmosphere that failed to prevent those attacks.

Ridge's announcement gave Democrats an opening to criticize both the administration and Congress for what they said were failings at securing the nation.

"Today Secretary Ridge told us that the Bush administration has made serious progress dealing with potential terrorist attacks," said a statement from the Kerry campaign. "What he did not tell you is that they still do not have a system in place to ensure that the FBI, CIA, local law enforcement, and other relevant agencies are working together to understand the threats we face or even assess our most obvious vulnerabilities."

Senate Democrats said that with the threat being so serious, it was wrong for Senate Republicans to delay action on homeland-security legislation.

"Unfortunately, even after this morning's new terror warnings, Senate Republicans refuse to address important homeland-security legislation," said a statement from Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., the Democratic leader.

Senate Democrats said they were particularly offended that Republicans chose to take up legislation on abuses of class-action lawsuits and a bill to add an amendment to the Constitution that would prevent gay marriages from being legally recognized instead of acting on the homeland-security measure.

Details on European arrests and Islamic Web sites were provided by Knight Ridder Newspapers.