Questão de Língua Inglesa

How are Americans supposed to assess terror threats when government agencies disagree on what they mean? New Yorkers faced this dilemma last week when local officials said the Feds gave them alarming intelligence about a specific and imminent bombing plot on the city's subway system. A counter-terror official familiar with the info NYPD's intel experts received says an informant in Iraq with a “very credible” track record claimed two weeks ago to have overheard suspected “Qaeda” operatives discussing how 19 terrorists would soon attack subways with bombs hidden in briefcases and baby strollers. This official, and five others who asked not to be named because of intel sensitivities, say U.S. military, CIA and FBI personnel quickly rounded up three Iraqi suspects. They were determined eventually to be “bull---- artists,” says one of the officials. Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke called the threat information of “doubtful credibility”; the FBI was dubious, too, says one of the officials. The subway threat surfaced the same day President George W. Bush said that since 9/11 America and its allies had “disrupted” at least 10 serious Qaeda attack plots and had foiled five more schemes. White House and Homeland Security officials claimed initially that plot details were “classified.” But the White House later released a list of scenarios that were supposedly foiled. The list raised new questions: according to a classified intel report obtained by Newsweek, two of the “casing” plots Bush listed were part of a single scheme 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed devised to coincide with, or follow, the 9/11 attacks. One of the sources who didn't want to be named (a senior law-enforcement official) says most of the plots the White House cited were “speculative.” But another of the sources (a counter-terror official familiar with the intel behind Bush's speech) maintained the president characterized the info accurately. (Mark Hosenball And Michael Isikof – Newsweek – October 17, 2005)