US: Homeland Security Secretary Mr Tom Ridge yesterday warned Americans that al-Qaeda might try to carry out "a large-scale attack" to disrupt upcoming elections, but offered no details and had no plans to raise the terror threat level.
Democrats have criticised a number of such warnings by the administration and questioned the timing of the latest televised news conference that provided no new specific intelligence about an attack on any specific site. Mr Ridge said the information had been obtained from credible sources over the past months and years.
"Since September 11th, 2001, we have had intelligence that al-Qaeda intends to launch more attacks against the homeland. Credible reporting now indicates that al-Qaeda is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic process."
But he said authorities had no specific intelligence about whether al-Qaeda was targeting either the Democratic convention later this month in Boston or the Republican convention in New York at the end of August.