Oh dear God No. Another Loop hole?

This story is taked directly from USA Today, 7/12/04 (www.usatoday.com)

Counterterrorism officials look to postpone elections


WASHINGTON — Counterterrorism officials are looking into the possibility of postponing the November presidential election if there is a terrorist attack at election time, Newsweek reported Sunday.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warned last week that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network may attack within the USA to try to disrupt the election.

The magazine cited unnamed sources who said the Department of Homeland Security asked the Justice Department for advice last week.

Newsweek said DeForest Soaries, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, wants Ridge to ask Congress to pass legislation giving the government power to cancel or reschedule a federal election. Soaries said New York suspended primary elections on the day of the Sept. 11 attacks, but the federal government does not appear to have that authority.

The disclosure comes only a few days after U.S. authorities said they believe that al-Qaeda is planning a "large-scale" attack in the USA aimed at disrupting the presidential campaign and November elections.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Thursday that the party conventions were among the possible targets of such an attack, although he said there had been no particular threat to either convention. Democrats meet in Boston later this month; the Republican convention begins in late August in New York City.

Ridge said the intelligence was gathered from "credible" sources, but he acknowledged that it did not yield any specific information about a possible attack.

U.S. officials have been particularly concerned about an attack during the presidential campaign since the Madrid railway bombings in March. The bombings, which killed nearly 200 people, occurred on the eve of national elections. Spain's ruling party was ousted.


Does this make anyone else a little nervous? It is just like Bush to cover all his bases 'just in case' and then have that very issue turn out in his favor. The scariest part for me is the word 'cancel' in the fourth paragraph. I can just see old W now dancing around in a half shirt singing into a hairbrush 'oopse I did it again, I played with your heart, got lost in the game.' But seriously folks this sounds like something really big might be in the works here. There is the 'good of the country' and then there is 'sick with power.' Of course it makes sense to postpone the election if a large scale attack makes it difficult or impossible for large groups of people to get to the polls. My question is, what are they going to consider an attack or threat of an attack. Imminent danger can mean a lot of things and can be construed in lots of different ways, lest we forget the 'weapons of mass distruction' debacle. (I can just see W calling in a bomb threat to the Washington Monument the night before the election...) Will they be able to put the election off indefinately, or is there a set time frame to reschedule. For now let's just all keep our ears to the ground and our eyes peeled... we cant let them pull the wool over our eyes this time. This is our America.