DHS memo: record number of terrorist attacks on US

CNN reports:

Just weeks after the failed car bombing of New York's Times Square, the Department of Homeland Security says "the number and pace of attempted attacks against the United States over the past nine months have surpassed the number of attempts during any other previous one-year period."

That grim assessment is contained in an unclassified DHS intelligence memo prepared for various law enforcement groups, which says terror groups are expected to try attacks inside the United States with "increased frequency."

CNN obtained a copy of the document, dated May 21, which goes on to warn, "we have to operate under the premise that other operatives are in the country and could advance plotting with little or no warning."

Most important government memos these days are classified.   But an exception to the rule is that any memo that could seriously scare Americans and remind them of their vulnerability to the terrorists is better left unclassified.  DoF commends Homeland Security for having quickly released this memo so that it could have maximum effect.

Update: Only an hour after the CNN story was published, twitter users had "re-tweeted' links to this story perhaps one hundred times. Fear is wondrously contagious. (Tip: you can follow DoF on twitter).

Five great years

DOF staff want to congratulate our friends at Homeland Security -- particularly Mike and the rest of the leadership team -- for making history these past five years.

How effective has Homeland Security been? Well, ask yourselves this question: Since 2003 -- when the Department of Homeland Security was founded -- have Americans become less fearful of the world or more fearful? We at DOF firmly believe the latter. Today most Americans have a robust and healthy fear of the unknown.

Given recent events, that is quite an accomplishment. To think that nothing -- not the destruction of New Orleans, not the prospect of Iraq turning into a failed state, nor even the collapse of the US financial system -- has overtaken "the unknown" as Americans' greatest fear. Against the odds, Homeland Security has successfully nurtured fear of the unknown in the hearts and minds of the American People.

While Congress squabbles, Americans know that Homeland Security will be there to protect America's major corporations from the really serious dangers: the threats that have yet to strike us.

We at DOF are proud partners of Mike and the entire team at HS.