From Bloomberg News:
Terrorists may see the change to a new U.S. president over the next six months as a prime chance to attack, no matter who wins the White House, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.
``Any period of transition creates a greater vulnerability, meaning there's more likelihood of distraction,'' Chertoff said in an interview yesterday. ``You have to be concerned it will create an operational opportunity for terrorists.''
Joe Biden's remark, "Watch...it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy,'' came one day after a security briefing on Oct. 18, given to representatives from both campaigns:
Officials from both campaigns have been asked to briefings after warnings from US intelligence that terrorists and rogue states will seek to exploit the power vacuum following November's presidential election.
An official involved in the transition discussions told The Sunday Telegraph: "There has been no specific threat but the assessment is that someone will try something.
Straight from the US intelligence analysts:
There have been particularly intensive efforts to make sure Mr Obama has his national security team in place, not just because he is widely expected to win the election on November 4, but because intelligence analysts believe America's enemies are more likely to try to take advantage of Mr Obama's international inexperience than they would of Mr McCain.
Clearly, coming off that briefing, the campaigns were left with the impression that there was a very real possibility our enemies would try to test the next president--particularly if that president were Barack Obama--within the first 6 months, as Joe Biden said.
This wasn't Joe making a gaffe; this was Joe sharing with the American people the concerns our intelligence experts relayed. Whether these concerns have been drummed up by the Bush administration in an attempt to bolster McCain's flagging campaign by suggesting an Obama presidency puts America at risk is unclear. (Don't forget Homeland Security's orange alerts and duct tape warnings prior to the 2004 election.)
It seems Joe was getting ahead of this possible political curveball thrown by Homeland Security by reassuring voters that regardless of what our security experts say is the intent, Obama will be ready for any crisis. Additionally, the McCain camp was given this same briefing, and it's not unlikely that days before the election they would pull it out in an attempt to "scare" voters into voting for McCain.
Biden knows that everything he says is recorded/taped/distributed, and, contrary to the McCain camp's assertion, he was also giving a warning to the terrorists whom our experts say may be engaged in making these post-election plans:
"Don't try it, because we will be ready for you."
Of course, the MSM fails to do it's job again and only reports on the second half of the equation. Leave it to the British press to do our media's job:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...