Terror in NYC?

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 6:42 AM on October 7, 2005.

After a "credible tip" that 19 operatives had been dispatched to bomb the NYC subway system (and some nervous twitching from this Brooklyn --> Manhattan rider), suspicions are rising.

Noting that the "Homeland Security office is calling the threat 'specific but not credible,'" my fellow New Yorker and subway rider, Jazz, takes a deep breath and writes:

"one of the biggest casualties in the 'war on terror' is probably faith in our government...How many times have we seen the 'terror level' alert raised precisely when somebody from the Bush administration or the GOP at large has gotten themselves in trouble?"

"Rove and Libby appear on the verge of being indicted by a Federal Grand Jury, DeLay has already been indicted, and other GOP operatives are being dragged out of the shadows. Support for Bush's war is bottoming out [actually, his approval hit an embarrassingly low 37% yesterday] and his SCOTUS nomination looks to be in trouble. And suddenly... BANG! 'The terrorists are going to blow up the subway!' How terribly convenient."

Via the Heretik: "Sources told NBC that the information came from a single informant of varying credibility...A homeland security official tells NBC News that though the source has "doubtful" credibility, the heightened security in NY is necessary out of an abundance of caution. The source has apparently given some accurate information in the past, and some inaccurate."

The Heretik also excerpts yesterday's press briefing, at which Scott McClellan claims that 10 al-Qaeda threats have been averted -- though he only mentions two.

Ten is a nice round number. Reminds me of that scene in Manchurian Candidate where the McCarthy stand-in's at dinner deciding just how many Communists there are in Congress and camera cuts to a shot of the Heinz 57 sauce on the table before the press conference where he claims -- with unshakable authority -- that there are 57 Communist in Congress! (Running Scared)

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Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.