Homeland Security says possible jet attacks this summer

From today's Washington Post:

WASHINGTON, July 29 — U.S. officials said yesterday that they have learned of credible threats of possible new airline suicide hijackings by terrorists planned for the latter part of the summer.

The information was developed in recent interviews with one or more high-level al Qaeda captives and corroborated separately by other means, including electronic intercepts, officials said. They described the possible scenarios as similar to the hijackings of four U.S. airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, that were crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in western Pennsylvania.

“The U.S. intelligence community has received information related to al Qaeda’s continued interest in using commercial aviation here in the United States and abroad to further their cause,” said Department of Homeland Security spokesman Gordon Johndroe. “The Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory regarding this information over the weekend to the appropriate airline and security personnel.”

Information about the possible attacks began emerging last week, government sources said. It could not be learned yesterday which al Qaeda captives had provided the information, but officials said they had taken steps to verify its credibility. “It didn’t just come from one place,” an intelligence official said.

“We are continuing to investigate the credibility of the information,” Johndroe said.

Sadly, with the way this administration has handled intelligence and warnings previously, the next question has to be "Is there really a reason for concern, or are they trying to distract us from the scandals that aren't going away?"