this is worth a read http://www.counterpunch.org/mcgovern06022004.html ray usually makes sense and isnt known for hyperbole - the title is "How Far Would They Go?" and u can prolly guess the rest.
"Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. He is a member of the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity"

heres a much less credible version of the same thing http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=355 titled "Rogue Bush Backers prepare Super 9/11 False Flag Terror Attacks", it documents some of the media pointing to a us attack, madrid style. its worth a quick look
"Aznar's briefing would seem to have included the notion that if there is going to be pre-election terrorism, it needs to be of sufficient magnitude to provide a pretext for calling off all scheduled elections."

"Aznar referred more than once about a terrorist attack taking place in the United States in June, 2004, which would lead to a Federal Emergency Management Agency takeover of the U.S. (International Herald Tribune, May 15, 16, 17, Los Angeles Times, May 15)"
this is the first ive heard of a june attack?

"Rumsfeld spoke about how he dealt with the ex-Prime Minister by saying: "In
Spain, in Madrid, the terrorists changed the result of the elections,
without any doubt. In a premeditated way as consequence of the aim of
the terrorists, the election results were changed. I had dinner with Prime Minister Aznar, and he is convinced that this is how it happened," said Rumsfeld."
notice how rummy uses the same trick that kelli wotsername from cnn did about this same issue - rummy makes the point, and then credits distances himself from it. (ashcroft tries something similar: "The Madrid railway bombings were perceived by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda to have advanced their cause. Al Qaeda may perceive that a large-scale attack in the United States this summer or fall would lead to similar consequences.")

"In California, Aznar told the press on Monday that Islamic terrorism has as objective, to influence elections in democratic countries. "If they could do it in Spain, why would they not intend to do it in another place?" he said and added, "It's important to understand that the terrorists will do everything to change the next elections in the USA."
yet still no-one mentions australia??? i dont get it. im wary of the temptation to think that oz is important just coz i come from here (like the mktg mngr who wants to solve all problems with mktg solutions) - but i dont think im falling victim to that... oz is often mentioned by alq, and we are perhaps the 3rd cog in the iraq mess, praps with a higher profile than spain had. and howard has been standing side-by-side with gwb just this week, and 43 has been lashing howards opponent, and howard has been soapboxing that he (actually his forces) will stay as long as it takes and all that. the analogy with spain is pretty hard to miss.

the article quotes from this scary nytmag article (http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/news/opeds/2004/ignatieff_less_evils_nytm_050204.htm):
"A democracy can allow its leaders one fatal mistake -- and that's what
9/11 looks like to many observers -- but Americans will not forgive a
second one."
as ive mentioned b4, praps the plan is to hit oz, then cancel the us election. on the specious basis 'no election = no attack'

"Their main conclusion seems to be that, for guaranteed success, the terrorism must be so colossal that the planned elections can simply be cancelled, as Aznar tried but failed to do."

"Incredibly, the Congress is
conniving in its own liquidation through the bill ordering instant
elections to replace deceased Congressmen which is now making its way
in to law. The gullible lawmakers would seem to be signing their own
death warrant, since if there is anything that would facilitate the
erection of a police state, it is the lack of an intact and functioning
legislative branch"

in essence, the above articles outline the increasingly widely-held view that a pre-nov domestic terrorist attack is likely to lead to a suspension of the election (and other thingys).

my view is that most of those objectives can be achieved with an attack on oz, and is easily blamed on alq, and it distances the ams from potential 'october surprise' charges. the teeve pundits here are now saying 'probably october' for the oz election.

ftr- ive just read the ashcroft transcript http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/05/26/terror.threat.transcript - the media headlines seemed to be 'an attack in the US in the summer' - however ashcroft talks repeatedly about the "summer or fall" - secondly, attempting to parse his language seems maybe to point to him leaning towards saying 'on the US', not 'in the US' - which may or may not mean anything... ftr - the US Fall starts sep21. im not sure how late the oz election can be - but the apparent shift from august to october mite mean good things for the US, and bad things for oz. im reminded of that odd occurence last weekend when that Roche terror story went missing from murdercks The Australianonline, elevating a relative nothing story "Delay Election" to the number one slot.

(the other curious thing about that Roche/theaustralian missing story is that the only story about roche that the paper ran was not the obvious 'guilty' thing, but blaming ASIO. in the last week we've also seen screaming matches in parliament and senateestimatescommittee with defence officials being hung out to dry about the iraqtorture thing. and then we saw tenet leave the cia. the parallels between oz & us lately have been quite startling. more to come perhaps.)