Terror as a political tool

So, the upgrading of the terror level in the US was based on three year old information - isn't it a stroke of good fortune for the Bush administration that this information became available just after the Democratic convention? I mean, it's surely just a co-incidence that the news cycles are now dominated with fear-mongering rather than Democratic issues... it's just unfortunate for Kerry. Sure.

If one had a certain ungenerous outlook, it would be tempting to label this as one in a long-line of baseless terror announcements, designed to keep the populace afraid - a political tool which has been used to good effect by many governments.

In denying that there was a political motivation behind the announcement, Tom Ridge says: "We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security.

Quite right... I mean, as he said himself in another statement: ...we must understand that the kind of information available to us today is the result of the president's leadership in the war against terror. Indeed - nice to see politics being kept out of the whole thing.