According to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, “there are not enough indications of an imminent plot to raise the current threat levels nationwide”. So, apparently, he’s making do with improvised fear-mongering, pitched at editorial boards of influential newspapers. Yesterday it was the privilege of the Chicago Tribune to receive and re-broadcast this tripe.

The Trib did not shirk from the task:

Fearing complacency among the American people over possible terror threats, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in Chicago Tuesday that the nation faces a heightened chance of an attack this summer.

“I believe we are entering a period this summer of increased risk,” Chertoff told the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board in an unusually blunt and frank assessment of America’s terror threat level.

“Summertime seems to be appealing to them,” he said of al-Qaeda. “We do worry that they are rebuilding their activities.”

If you stop reading right there in your growing panic, you’ll never learn that (in the very next paragraph):

Still, Chertoff said there are not enough indications of an imminent plot to raise the current threat levels nationwide. And he indicated that his remarks were based on “a gut feeling” formed by past seasonal patterns of terrorist attacks, recent al-Qaeda statements, and intelligence he did not disclose.

Just his gut feeling. And how much credence can you give to the gut feeling of a man who has shown no evidence whatsoever of having any guts? As for “intelligence he did not disclose”, you can’t disclose what you ain’t got. And intelligence is another thing this man has shown no evidence whatsoever of possessing.

Someone in the Trib seems to understand this. Their sub-heading for the story reads “Chertoff bases ‘gut feeling’ on history, Al Qaeda statements”. Left out the intelligence part there.

I’m not too sure what to make of Chertoff’s Tribune performance. He’s sending some kind of mixed signal, and it sounds to me like: “Hey, don’t stop traveling, just be a lot more scared.”

Does Secretary Chertoff have a hardened set of enhanced and expanded metallic globularities, or what? (Or, if you prefer, big brass balls.)

***Update, 9:15 am***

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson responds to Chertoff’s Trib performance:

Words have power, Mr. Secretary. You must choose them wisely—especially when they relate to the lives and security of the American public. What color code in the Homeland Security Advisory System is associated with a “gut feeling?” What sectors should be on alert as a result of your “gut feeling?” What cities should be asking their law enforcement to work double shifts because of your “gut feeling?” Are the American people supposed to purchase duct tape and plastic sheeting because of your “gut feeling?”