Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief William Bratton warned on Wednesday that al-Qaida might launch terror attacks in the United States to influence next month's presidential election.
"With so much at stake in these elections, (al-Qaida leader) Bin Laden will probably attempt to make his opinion count," Bratton said in an article published on the opinion page of the New York Daily News.
Bratton co-wrote the article with R. P. Eddy, former director of counter-terrorism at the National Security Council.
They called on local law enforcement agencies to increase surveillance of "high-value financial sites" and to bolster efforts to prevent truck or car bombings.
If the terror group is plotting an attack, a likely target would be one of the United States' financial institutions, Brattonand Eddy wrote.
They speculated that Bin Laden is looking to sway the election in favor of Republican Party candidate John McCain, since McCain "is more likely to engender Moslem anger and resentment than would his opponent."
"Put simply: Bin Laden probably realizes it could become markedly more difficult to paint the United States as the 'Great Satan' with a new president who is admired internationally," they wrote. "The remaining 14 days before the elections should be seen as a time of high threat, and state and local police should be on high alert."
Bratton and Eddy pointed to past efforts by al-Qaida to insert itself in elections. In 2004, for example, the terrorist group killed more than 191 people in a series of Madrid train bombings. The attacks, days before Spain's prime ministerial elections, swung the election in favor of a challenger, who was a harsh critic of U.S. foreign policy.
Deputy Chief Michael Downing, head of the LAPD's anti-terrorism bureau, told the Los Angeles Times that the department had been "gearing up for some time" for the November election.
Surveillance teams have been concentrated in the city's financial district, he said, adding that communication with private security groups has also increased, and the department's area commanders were briefed last week on the need to keep their officers vigilant, Downing said.
"We do not want them to be paranoid or anxious, but to orient our troops to potential threats," he said.
Source:Xinhua
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