US security chief warns of election year terror

02 October 2007 19:23  [Source: ICIS news]

BALTIMORE, Maryland (ICIS news)--A top US security official said on Tuesday that the risk of terrorist attack may increase in the next 14 months leading up to the US national elections, and he warned chemical plant operators to be alert.

 

Robert Stephan, assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at the Department of Homeland Security, said that while there is no specific intelligence basis for his caution, common sense and recent history suggest that terrorists might seek to influence the US election process by launching an attack within the US or against US interests abroad.

 

“Look at the Madrid train bombings, which resulted in a different government being elected there than otherwise might have been the case,” Stephan said, referring to the 11 March 2004 train bombings in the Spanish capital that killed nearly 200 people and wounded more than 2,000 others.

 

That bombing attack was made three days before the Spanish national elections.

 

“The government that was elected after that attack broke its alliance with the US and others in the fighting in Iraq,” Stephan said.

 

He also cited this year’s 29 and 30 June attempted car bombings in London and Glasgow, launched three days after Gordon Brown took office as the new UK prime minister.

 

The US national elections for president, all seats in the House of Representatives, a third of those in the Senate and many state and local offices are scheduled for 4 November 2008, but major presidential candidates have been campaigning actively for months already.

 

Stephan said that while there is no hard intelligence suggesting that a terrorist attack might target the US elections, he advised chemical industry security executives to be alert and aware.  “Often we cannot afford to wait for a solid intelligence indicator,” Stephan said.  “Sometimes we will get the intelligence report only a couple of days after an attack.”

 

He also warned that terrorists in Iraq have made advances in using chlorine-filled canisters in bomb attacks, launching 15 such attacks since October last year.  “We may see those sort of attempts here someday,” he cautioned.

 

Stephan spoke on the second day of a three-day chemicals security conference, sponsored by the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA).

By: Joe Kamalick
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