Jul. 9, 2004. 06:19 AM
Bush is sowing fear for votes: Critics
TIM HARPER
WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON—The Bush administration faced accusations on two fronts yesterday that it was using the threat of terrorist attacks for its own political advantage in an election year.
First, the White House was forced to deny an explosive report in The New Republic magazine accusing it of pressuring Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to kill or capture Osama bin Laden or his top lieutenants before the Nov. 2 election.
The magazine also quoted a Pakistani intelligence source as saying President George W. Bush's office has pushed hard for a "high value target" to be served up by the end of this month to coincide with the Democratic national convention where John Kerry will be officially nominated as the party's presidential candidate.
Then, the White House was accused of sowing fear unnecessarily when Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge held a news conference to warn of Al Qaeda operations targeting the U.S. during the election season.
However — while mentioning the Democratic convention in Boston and the Republican convention in New York — Ridge said there was no specific information about time, place or method of attack.
The news conference, which yielded no new information, was reminiscent of a similar availability by Attorney-General John Ashcroft in late May. It also drew charges that the Bush team was using terrorist fears to dominate the U.S. news cycle and send a political message that only it could defend the homeland.
Also, the government made no move to raise the terrorist alert yesterday from yellow (elevated).
Some Democrats suggested the White House wanted to slow the continuous, generally laudatory television coverage of Kerry with his new running mate, North Carolina Senator John Edwards.
"We are basically laying out before the general public the kind of information we have received," Ridge said. "These are not conjectures or mythical statements that we are making."
But congressional Democrats, who were given a closed-door briefing before the Ridge announcement, were more circumspect. Some came away suggesting the threat was real but was not being properly countered by the Bush administration.
Instead, they charged, Republicans were tinkering with political issues in Congress, such as tort reform and next week's vote on gay marriage — widely seen as a ploy to hurt Democrats in swing states — instead of dealing squarely with terrorist threats.
The New Republic piece was the first credible report of what has become a favourite of conspiracy theorists and hardline partisans here — that Bush is waiting to announce bin Laden's capture at the most politically opportune time, a so-called "October surprise."
The article, entitled "July Surprise?" alleges CIA Director George Tenet, who officially resigns Sunday after seven years in the post, Secretary of State Colin Powell and counterterrorism chief J. Cofer Black all visited Musharraf in recent months and pressured or threatened him if he can't deliver bin Laden.
"The last 10 days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during (Pakistani Intelligence Lt.-Gen. Ehsan) ul-Haq's visits to Washington," one source said.
White House spokesperson Scott McClellan said reporters should give no credence to the report in a magazine that opposes the Bush administration.
Sean McCormack, the National Security Council spokesperson, said he could find no evidence to corroborate any of the assertions in the article. Pakistan has been a firm ally in the war on terrorism, he added.
He said the White House has been working to bring bin Laden to justice 24 hours a day, 365 days per year, since Sept. 11, 2001.
Vince Cannistraro, former CIA counterterrorism chief, also discounted the story as a product of the "silly season, the political season."
He said Musharraf's government has been pressured to do more but specific deadlines, coinciding with the Democratic convention, would never trickle down to Pakistani intelligence. Cannistraro, however, saw Ridge's news conference yesterday as politically motivated because it offered no new information and coincided with the positive Kerry-Edwards coverage.
The White House said Ridge was merely doing his job, keeping Americans updated on an ongoing threat.
"This is an administration that is not shy about using terrorism for political purposes," said Robert Boorstin, a former official in the Bill Clinton administration, now a senior scholar at the liberal Center for American Progress.
"This is an unbelievable attempt to say to the American people that Al Qaeda wants to attack us because they want Bush to lose, when the fact is Bush is Al Qaeda's number one recruiter.
"This is a campaign based on fear and the message is `Don't switch parties, we will keep you safe, we are in charge here,'" Boorstin said.
"But it is fear-mongering. It is Chicken Little politics. How many times can you say the sky is falling before people no longer trust you?"
At a background briefing for reporters after Ridge's comments, officials were only slightly more forthcoming with details.
"(There is) an intent and preparation to carry out major attacks that would inflict major casualties, as well as to create economic damage, political damage, psychological damage to the United States," one official said.
The intelligence officials also said there was concern about attacks on polling stations on voting day and reiterated that New York and Los Angeles remain prime targets.
They also said that, while Al Qaeda is still interested in airplanes as instruments of terror, car bombs and truck bombs could also be used in the U.S.
Since the March attack in Madrid, commuter trains and subways have also been under tighter surveillance in the U.S.
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