As you know now (see my previous post), The Washington Post and The New York Times are reporting that the terror alert is based largely on very, very dated evidence of al-Qaeda surveillance.

CNN's spin on this just now: Al-Qaeda has been conducting surveillance on U.S. financial institutions for years! Some of it as recently as this year!

(As the Post notes, "One piece of information on one building, which intelligence officials would not name, appears to have been updated in a computer file as late as January 2004, according to a senior intelligence official.")

I'm quoting CNN from memory. I'll try to post the exact words when the transcript's up.

(UPDATE: Well, forget it -- what's posted above is accurate, but, pre-coffee, I was apparently confusing CNN with Headline News, which doesn't post transcripts. (CNN at 7:00 A.M. did acknowledge the Post and Times stories.)