Chertoff's Hunch

For some time, we've known that Secretary of Homeland Security is operating on hunch that, this summer, we're in greater danger of an attack, although with the caveat of "without a lot of specifics."

On August 1, 2007, along came this story:

A new al Qaeda propaganda ad, headlined "Wait for the Big Surprise" and featuring a digitally altered photograph of President George Bush and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf standing in front of a burning White House, was posted on the Internet today.

The brief clip from al Qaeda's "as Sahab" propaganda arm juxtaposes the doctored photo of Bush and Musharraf along with previously seen images of al Qaeda's top leadership -- Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahri and Adam Gadahn -- as well as a photo of an SUV in a motorcade.

There is no additional information provided in the ad, and it closes with the words, "Soon -- God willing," written across the screen and repeated several times.

In addition, the amount of anti-terrorism dollars has just been increased for the D.C. area. From this August 1, 2007 story in the Washington Post:

The D.C. area will use a major anti-terrorism grant to upgrade its bomb squads and provide law enforcement with new intelligence analysts and computer systems -- including one dubbed "Google for cops," authorities said yesterday.

Those were among the details released by state and local officials, who met this week to carve up a recent $61.6 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security. The funds are a 30 percent increase over last year's award to the region...

On August 4, 2007, this story appeared in the Washington Post, on the front page, above the fold:

The Senate bowed to White House pressure last night and passed a Republican plan for overhauling the federal government's terrorist surveillance laws, approving changes that would temporarily give U.S. spy agencies expanded power to eavesdrop on foreign suspects without a court order.

The 60 to 28 vote, which was quickly denounced by civil rights and privacy advocates, came after Democrats in the House failed to win support for more modest changes that would have required closer court supervision of government surveillance. Earlier in the day, President Bush threatened to hold Congress in session into its scheduled summer recess if it did not approve the changes he wanted.

The legislation, which is expected to go before the House today [August 4], would expand the government's authority to intercept without a court order the phone calls and e-mails of people in the United States who are communicating with people overseas.

[...]

Sixteen Democrats and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) joined all 43 Republicans in supporting the measure, which is nearly identical to a proposal prepared by the Bush administration. "We're at war. The enemy wants to attack us," Lieberman said during the Senate debate....

A few weeks ago, the Washington Post carried an item from a local reader, who noted a lot of extra heliocopter activity in the airspace over his home, situated near Andrews Air Force Base. He emphasized that he had noticed such activity only twice before, each time prior to the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Locals in the D.C. area have also recently noted frequent testings of the Emergency Broadcast System.

Put together all the above. Your conclusions?