More on the Increased Terror Alert.

Here's what the Washington Post is reporting. Of particular interest:

Most of the al Qaeda surveillance of five financial institutions that led to a
new terrorism alert Sunday was conducted before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and
authorities are not sure whether the casing of the buildings has continued,
numerous intelligence and law enforcement officials said yesterday.

More than half a dozen government officials interviewed yesterday, who declined to be identified because classified information is involved, said that most, if not
all, of the information about the buildings seized by authorities in a raid in
Pakistan last week was about three years old, and possibly older.

"There is nothing right now that we're hearing that is new," said one senior law
enforcement official who was briefed on the alert. "Why did we go to this level?
. . . I still don't know that."

And:

"Most of the information is very dated but you clearly have targets with enough
specificity, and that pushed it over the edge," the counterterrorism official
said. "You've got the Republican convention coming up, the Olympics, the
elections. . . . I think there was a feeling that we should err on the side of
caution even if it's not clear that anything is new."

That last statement is pretty much an admission that this is all bogus.