TERRORISM Officials step up security efforts

The FBI has failed to review thousands of hours of audio recordings, a report says.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON -- Senior Bush administration officials remain deeply concerned about a possible terrorist attack before or after the Nov. 2 presidential election and are implementing preventive actions likely to remain in force through January.
The steps include intensified FBI interviews of people suspected of having links to terrorists, renewed scrutiny of students for possible visa violations and stepped-up security at polling places.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, emphasized that they have no new information about the timing or manner of any such attack. But they said that a continuing stream of intelligence since the spring shows that terrorists are intent on disrupting the election process.
Their comments came the same day that the Justice Department's inspector general's office issued a summary of a secret audit that raised questions about a crucial aspect of the government's anti-terror efforts -- the ability of the FBI to effectively monitor thousands of hours of audio recordings obtained as part of terror and espionage investigations.
Concerned
For months, Homeland Security officials have expressed concern that terrorists might target the election or some other high-profile event, such as the summer Olympics in Greece or the political conventions in Boston and New York.
At Monday's security briefing, officials said they were increasingly concerned in part because the other landmark dates had passed without incident, and the window of time before the election had shrunk. The election is five weeks from today.
They also said they had received intelligence in recent weeks and months confirming that the election period, which continues through the presidential inauguration Jan. 20, remained of interest to terrorists.
Officials have spoken before of their fear that the deadly commuter train bombings in Madrid, Spain, on March 11 were a possible template for an attack on the United States. The ruling party, which had supported U.S. policy in Iraq, was defeated in elections held three days after the attacks.
"The intelligence is that Al-Qaida wants to affect our election," a senior Homeland Security official said Monday.
Campaign issue
The administration's pursuit of the war on terror has become a central issue in the campaign between President Bush and his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry.
Democrats have also asserted that the administration is using the threat of a possible attack to scare the electorate to stick with the status quo in November.
The officials at Monday's briefing said they were speaking out, on the condition of anonymity, to put in perspective recent media reports discussing the election-related precautions they were taking.
They added that there was no evidence that the terrorists viewed an attack as a way of either defeating Bush or enhancing Kerry's candidacy.
Terrorists' primary goals, the officials said, were to disrupt the democratic process and to make a violent statement to their own supporters.
Those attending the briefing included officials from the Homeland Security and Justice departments, the FBI and the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, a joint venture of the CIA and the FBI.
Enhancing programs
The officials acknowledged that many of the actions they are planning represent enhancements to existing programs.
Those measures include boosting the frequency with which the Coast Guard boards ships and stepped-up use of canine patrols at train stations and other sites that attract large crowds.
But they said a key difference was one of degree and intensity. "We are putting on a full-court press," an FBI official said.
A Justice Department official also disclosed that Attorney General John Ashcroft had recently held a conference call with top federal prosecutors on terrorism, but mainly to underscore the generalized need to be alert in coming weeks.
Translating problems
The translator report found that the FBI had not reviewed more than 123,000 hours of audio in languages known to be used by terrorists that had been compiled since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
It also found that more than one-third of Al-Qaida intercepts authorized by a secret federal court were not reviewed within 12 hours of collection as required by FBI Director Robert Mueller.
The FBI had previously acknowledged problems in hiring sufficient numbers of new translators and linguists who can pass its rigorous security clearances for handling highly sensitive terrorism and intelligence investigations. It has said that it is hiring linguists as quickly as they can be found.
But critics of the bureau said the enormous backlog belied a disturbing lack of progress.
"Unfortunately, this report shows that the FBI is still drowning in information about terrorism activities with hundreds of thousands of hours of audio yet to be translated," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa. "It doesn't do anyone any good for the FBI to have the terrorists' attack plans in its hands but still not be able to see or hear what the plans are."