If the Bushies are trying to stir up fear with a fake terror alert -- as every liberal in America except me apparently believes -- they sure have a funny way of doing it:

In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan, echoing a bulletin issued by the Homeland Security Department, said the threat was "of doubtful credibility."

--Reuters

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle said yesterday: "The specified intelligence was checked out through the intelligence agencies. They looked at all the information and couldn't put a credible factor on it."

--Washington Times

One senior federal law enforcement official ... said the alleged plotters talked about going to New York to launch an attack, but authorities questioned whether they had the means or ability to do so.

"It was crazy, fantastical. You're talking about guys who had no capability of doing what they say they were going to do," said the official.

--Los Angeles Times

But a high-level federal official said there was "zero danger."

--New York Post

How does this make the fearmongering more effective, if fearmongering is all it is?

I'm going to believe what I'm reading in Newsday:

Behind the scenes, a top city official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the FBI encouraged Bloomberg to make the threat public, despite questions all parties had about the quality of intelligence.

The source described Homeland Security brass as "asleep at the wheel" and said city leaders were "confused over which federal agency to believe."

An utter lack of coordination between agencies working on terrorism? Sounds like the Bush administration to me.