“Be vigilant … if you see any strange people around who are strangers with cameras.” –D.C. official, at a press conference

In his press conference this morning, Tom Ridge cited five specific buildings as possible Al Qaeda targets: The World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., the Prudential Building in Newark, N.J., and the Citicorp buildings and New York Stock Exchange in New York City.

The New York Stock Exchange

UPDATE: I wonder whether this alert will: 1) cause Al Qaeda to call off this particular plot and look for an alternative; 2) cause them to “move up” the plot to an earlier date, quite soon, in the hopes of catching us off-guard before we’ve fully put our security measures in place; or 3) have little or no effect on their operational plans.

If Al Qaeda were to choose option 2 or option 3, and were to successfully pull off an attack against one or more of these buildings, it occurs to me that that would be a major success for the terrorists, and would be perceived as a major failure for the government and Bush. This announcement by Ridge has really raised the stakes, in a way.

In response to a reporter’s question, Ridge said the Pakistani woman who was apprehended illegally crossing the border with a fishy passport, $7,000 in cash, and a plane ticket to New York (see previous post) is not connected to this plot. Uhh…. riiiiight. I’m thinking Ridge may have just said that because the woman’s name was specifically mentioned and she, unlike Al Qaeda as a whole, enjoys the presumption of innocence. That’s just a guess, though.

Tropical Depression One has been upgraded to Tropical Storm Alex, and a Tropical Storm Warning has been issued from Cape Fear, NC to Cape Hatteras, NC, including Pamlico Sound. Here is the discussion. Alex is expected to hit the Carolinas later today (though its wind speed is only 40 mph, so this is not exactly going to be a devastating wind storm). The longer-term forecast track continues to call for the storm to go out to sea well south of New England:

I just realized no one has ever preached the benefits of the Bush or Chimp website, so I figured I’d let everyone in on what the Republicans don’t want you to know . . . Bush is nothing more than a chimpanzee!