BIG GRRRR

Because timing is everything, I find it very interesting that Homeland Security is giving us a terrorism advisory scare the same night that the Democratic presidential candidates find their voice in a big way in their New Mexico debate.

A Department of Homeland Security advisory issued Thursday warns that al Qaeda is working on plans to hijack airliners flying between international points that pass near or over the continental United States.

A department official said most of the flights fitting this description originate in Canada, and that U.S. officials have been working with Canada over the past month to ensure it is improving screening and other security measures.

One government official noted, however, the United States has no authority to require security measures of non-U.S. carriers whose flights originate outside the United States.

The advisory was issued because of concerns about the coming second anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a recent uptick in intelligence information, and threats to aviation that continued through the summer.

Issued to state and local authorities and the private sector, the advisory said terrorist operatives have been studying countries to determine which have the least stringent requirements for entry. That could be a factor in their consideration of which flights would be easiest to board and take control of.

The advisory includes a laundry list of possible attack scenarios, and says al Qaeda may be researching how to disseminate diseases and toxins by contaminating water and food, or aerosolizing an agent in an enclosed space.

Why is this a news story? What is this scattershot nonsense? Especially considering:

But the advisory says there is no specific information on individual targets or dates that would warrant raising the nation's threat alert level from the current yellow (elevated) to orange (high).

But it's warranted to keep the media from talking about the Dem debate? This blanket warning has more to do with Richard Gephardt's repeated characterization of the whole of Bush policy as a "miserable failure", than anything Al Qaida might be doing.

CNN reiterates that the advisory wasn't based on anything in particular at the end of its piece, as if doing so would somehow make up for how they splashed the advisory all over the top of their main page:

Earlier in the day, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge held a conference call with state officials to tell them there are no plans at present to raise the threat level in advance of the September 11 anniversary. According to one participant in the call, Ridge said there had been an uptick in threat information, but not in the quantity or quality that would warrant moving from yellow to orange.

But it warrants . . . oh, nevermind, I give up.

This is playing politics with people's fear at its worst. I'll remember this during next september's New York Exploit-o-Fest that the GOP is planning to hold.