[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: An American Debate: How Severe the Threat?

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An American Debate: How Severe the Threat?

August 5, 2004
 By STEPHEN KINZER and TODD S. PURDUM 



 

KENOSHA, Wis., Aug. 4 - If the United States was in
imminent danger of a terrorist attack and faraway financial
institutions were supposed to be on high alert, there was
no evidence of it at Franks Diner, a 78-year-old Kenosha
institution where senators mix with regular folk and the
prospect of another attack seemed just part of the
background noise of daily life. 

"I don't know who on earth to believe anymore," said
Michael Schumacher, a 54-year-old writer who was eating a
bratwurst for breakfast. "You feel you're being manipulated
all the time." 

Some version of that view was echoed at almost every table
here as many patrons questioned whether the Bush
administration was trying to manipulate the terrorist
threat for political advantage. 

Some, like John Gilmore, who owned Franks until a few years
ago and still comes back to eat, said they had lost faith
in the administration after American troops failed to find
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. 

"They messed that thing up so badly that at this point, I
don't believe anything they tell us," Mr. Gilmore said.
"There's always an ulterior motive somewhere." 

Others, like Chris De Santis, 55, a registered Democrat who
is development director for a nature sanctuary, said the
timing of the latest warning raised suspicions. 

"You hear that they found plans and computer discs, so you
think maybe there's something to it,'' Mr. De Santis said.
"Then a day later, it turns out that a lot of the
information is three years old, five years old. So I get
suspicious. Isn't it a convenient time to have a terror
alert, right after the convention?" 

But Doug Thorne, a high school chemistry teacher from
Kenosha, summed up another reaction that was heard in
interviews in shopping malls, restaurants and street
corners in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Philadelphia, Cleveland
and San Francisco. 

"In light of 9/11, you have to take it seriously," Mr.
Thorne said. "I don't think it's a political play for
votes. If they're going to do that, they'll do it in
September or October." 

Versions of this debate flared across the country this week
as people sought to digest what was by far the most
explicit warning by government officials of a potential
terrorist attack since Sept. 11, 2001. 

With polls showing public doubts on topics like President
Bush's veracity on the war in Iraq and whether the country
is safer from terrorism as a result of that invasion,
people of diverse ages, income and political persuasion
interviewed in eight states expressed a wary mix of
skepticism and resignation about the orange alert that has
dominated headlines, newscasts and talk radio for three
days. 

Lauren Bakunas, a 23-year-old graduate student from
Parsippany, N.J., gave voice to a powerlessness that seemed
to be common. "If it's going to happen, it's going to
happen," she said. "I'm not going to change my life because
someone wants to threaten the country." 

But with the election only a few months away, much of the
conversation focused on politics. 

In Cleveland, Bryan Kupetz, a registered independent who
operates a hot dog stand, echoed a view that might have
seemed outlandish only a short time ago. 

"So much of the counterterrorism thing is political," Mr.
Kupetz said. "I wouldn't be surprised if they caught Osama
bin Laden two days before the election. Absolutely I think
Bush is using the war on terrorism to his advantage.'' 

A few blocks away, Ron Greenspan, a lawyer who was taking a
cigarette break in front of his office building, utterly
rejected that view. 

"I think he has the greater good of the American people at
heart," Mr. Greenspan said of President Bush. "The thought
of a president using this for political gain is just
disgusting, and I have a hard time believing that a man of
his political stature would do that." 

People in Pensacola, a bastion of Bible Belt conservatism
where President Bush crushed Al Gore by a nearly two-to-one
margin in the 2000 election, argued in similar terms. 

"I'm sure there's 10 terrorists willing to give up their
lives to hit some of our huge churches or malls and really
put fear and terror in the psyche of the public," Norm
Hughes, a retired civil servant and a Republican, said as
he waited for a friend outside the Coffee Cup, a popular
restaurant. "I'm hoping George Bush and his people are
doing their jobs to keep them from hitting here again. The
Democrats want to say Bush is drumming this up for
political reasons, but I don't think he would do that. " 

While Mr. Bush has long benefited from his image as a
straight talker, polls have shown an undercurrent of doubt
about his veracity, beginning with his answers on the Enron
scandal two years ago and continuing through to the Iraq
war and the prisoner abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison
outside Baghdad. 

When the public was asked in late June in a New York
Times/CBS News poll whether or not Mr. Bush was telling the
truth about the war in Iraq, only 18 percent of Americans
said he was telling the entire truth, 59 percent said he
was mostly telling the truth but was hiding something and
20 percent said he was mostly lying. 

Interviews around the country reflected those mixed views -
and a relatively higher level of concern in New York, New
Jersey and Washington, D.C. , the places covered by the
latest warning, than in the rest of the country. 

James Cooper, 51, a chemical company manager from
Kingsport, Tenn., who was visiting Washington, said he
believed the heightened threat level was justified, but he
acknowledged that much of his reasoning was based on faith.


"I don't think any of us have seen all of the pertinent
documents that would support the elevated threat level," he
said. "They're just not out there for the public. You just
have to have a certain amount of trust in the government.''


Some New Yorkers who live and work near the financial
buildings terrorists are said to have targeted were
uncertain how seriously to take the latest warnings. "I
can't imagine any politician playing with public safety to
get votes, but it doesn't hurt their image either," said
Teasha Duckworth, who works on the 19th floor of Citigroup
Center, one of the buildings that Homeland Security
Secretary Tom Ridge mentioned as a possible target. 

"You have to hope it's true," Keith Kirlew, a broker
assistant who also works in Citigroup Center, said of the
warning. "If this is political, it's pretty sick, so I have
to assume there's some truth to it." 

In Fort Lauderdale, Scott LaFortune, a model, said he
believes government officials gather realistic
intelligence, "but they can report it to us whenever they
think it's necessary, or when they feel like hyping it." 

"As time goes on, it's like crying wolf," Mr. LaFortune
said. "They say something's going to happen, but nothing
happens. Eventually we're going to ignore it and go on with
our life." 

In interviews this week, many people said they believed
there was little they could do to prepare for an attack,
and that they were resolved to carry on their lives as
before. "To tell you the truth, I don't worry about these
things," Sister Anna Cosgrave, 59, said as she waited for a
train at the Amtrak station in Philadelphia. "What will be,
will be." 

Not everyone in the terminal was so calm. Tammy Glass, a
35-year-old credit researcher from Lynchburg, Va., was
visibly upset by the prospect of another attack. 

"I do worry about alerts, big time," Ms. Glass said. "I am
scared to death to take trips. They didn't check my bags.
When you board a train, you hand them a ticket and that's
it. The terrorists are just waiting. They have it easy." 

In San Francisco, the same doubts troubled Edward Ross, a
37-year-old lawyer who is a registered independent. "As
much as I believe the warning was not politically based, I
do have a shadow of a doubt regarding the credibility of
the administration," Mr. Ross said. "It comes down to
credibility. You lose some faith in taking their statements
at face value." 

Augustus Williams, a 38-year-old Seattle Democrat, said he
had no doubt the terror warning was timed to help President
Bush. "This is part of his campaign, I think" Mr. Williams
said. "He's trying to get us to say, 'We still need Bush.'
" 

Many voters who say they trust President Bush seem less
convinced than those who mistrust him. In Seattle, Earl
Hilberg, 59, who works in a drug store and described
himself as an undecided voter, said that when officials in
Washington warn of danger, "we have to assume that they're
being honest about this until we find out otherwise." 

Another independent, Marcia Reed, 75, said, "I don't think
we know enough about all this to know what's real or what's
politically inspired." 

Stephen Kinzer reported from Kenosha and Todd S. Purdum
from Washington. Contributing reporting for this article
were Janet Elder from New York; Mark Glassman from
Washington; Paul Gereffi from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.;
DuWayne Escobedo from Pensacola, Fla.; Chris Maag from
Cleveland; and Carolyn Marshall from San Francisco. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/05/politics/05react.html?ex=1092726098&ei=1&en=aaff1dd45ac3105f


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