An October Kind of Thing

Since 9/11, it seems like every other October -- during the run-up to Election Day -- there is some sort of increased terror alert. When the Bush administration was behind these efforts, a lot of people knew it was nothing more than a political ploy to rally support for Republicans. Now, with a Democrat at the helm, it seems this same worn-out shtick again is being employed.

A US terror alert issued this week about al-Qaida plots to attack targets in western Europe was politically motivated and not based on credible new information, senior Pakistani diplomats and European intelligence officials have told the Guardian.

The non-specific US warning, which despite its vagueness led Britain, France and other countries to raise their overseas terror alert levels, was an attempt to justify a recent escalation in US drone and helicopter attacks inside Pakistan that have "set the country on fire", said Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the high commissioner to Britain.

Hasan, a veteran diplomat who is close to Pakistan's president, suggested the Obama administration was playing politics with the terror threat before next month's mid-term congressional elections, in which the Republicans are expected to make big gains.

He also claimed President Obama was reacting to pressure to demonstrate that his Afghan war strategy and this year's troop surge, which are unpopular with the American public, were necessary...

This continual effort to cry wolf one day will backfire. There will come a day when the intelligence is spot on and the "terror alert" will be real, but few members of the public will pay it any heed because of all the previous fake alerts.