The United States is bracing for possible terrorist attacks before the November presidential election, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.
| Doesn't take a genius to figure that out... |
The opportunity for terrorists to try to influence the election, as was the case last month in Spain, appears to be an opportunity that would "be too good to pass up for them," Rice said. "I think that we do have to take very seriously the thought that the terrorists might have learned, we hope, the wrong lesson from Spain," Rice told "Fox News Sunday."
| But Zapatero said he didn't send any such message. Doesn't anyone believe him? |
| Fox News said a few minutes ago that Zapper's announced Spain's troops will be withdrawn from Iraq as soon as they can round up bus fare. |
"I think we also have to take seriously that they might try during the cycle leading up to the election to do something," she said. "We are actively looking at that possibility, actively trying to see - to make certain that we are responding appropriately," she said. Jose Maria Aznar, outgoing prime minister of Spain and a strong U.S. ally in the war in Iraq, says he has warned President Bush that he believes terrorists will try to affect the U.S. election as they did in Spain. "I told George Bush, and (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair and other political leaders to be extremely careful before elections ... and to be very vigilant," Aznar told Fox.
| Which might not be enough. Will American voters learn the lesson of Spain? |
Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who succeeded Aznar over the weekend, was holding his first cabinet meeting on Monday. Two Spanish newspapers have reported that Zapatero's foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, will meet in Washington this week with Secretary of State Colin Powell and Rice. The newspaper ABC reported that Moratinos hopes to show U.S. officials that Spain wants to maintain its current good relations with the United States, despite Zapatero's plans to pull Spanish troops from Iraq today by June 30 unless the United Nations takes over political and military control of the occupation.
| Today's announcement was "ASAP," not "June 30." |
The newspaper El Pais reported Sunday that Moratinos will offer nonmilitary cooperation in Iraq, such as training of Iraqi police, as an alternative to the Spanish soldiers' presence if Zapatero does decide to bring them home. The Foreign Ministry declined comment Sunday.
| It's not the same, and they know it. |
| They've surrendered. Turban prices in Madrid have probably jumped 500 percent today. |
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