North Texas Should Be On Alert For Terrorism Experts Say

Another terrorist attack could hit the United States in the next five years — and North Texas could be a key target next time.

By 2013, the U.S. “more likely than not” could be hit by another deadly attack, this time using something possibly like anthrax, according to the new report, World at Risk.

And some fear that North Texas, with its population, sports and entertainment venues and businesses — not to mention the fact that President George W. Bush is moving back here after he leaves office in January — could be a target next time.

“Everybody should be concerned,” said Danny Defenbaugh, a former special agent in charge for the FBI in North Texas. “In Dallas-Fort Worth, this is the Metroplex. That should be reason for concern.”

Officials released the report by the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism not to scare Americans but to point out that the government isn’t doing enough to make America safe.

North Texas

The Metroplex is home to many professional sporting events, including the Texas Rangers, the Dallas Cowboys, the Dallas Stars, the Dallas Mavericks, NASCAR racing, horse racing, as well asminor-league baseball and hockey. It’s also home to the Cotton Bowl and the yearly Texas-OU football game.

The area houses entertainment venues, from Six Flags over Texas to the Gaylord Texan, and business infrastructure such as Exxon-Mobil.

Bush, a soon-to-be former president, will be moving to Dallas after he finishes his tenure at the White House next month. And Bush will help oversee the development of a presidential museum at the nearby Southern Methodist University campus.

“I’m not trying to say we are a target,” Defenbaugh said. “But if you look at any presidential site, or any former president, there’s reason for concern.”

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White House Concerned Over al Qaeda Terror Attack During Transition

President Bush on Thursday said he is concerned that al Qaeda will try to test the incoming Obama administration with a terror attack on U.S. soil, and said he will meet with the president-elect Monday to talk about homeland defense and the economy.

Terrorists, the president said, “would like nothing more than to exploit this period of change to harm the American people.”

White House press secretary Dana Perino stressed that the U.S. government has no specific intelligence of any imminent attacks.

“I don’t know anything specific, but we do know this a heightened period of concern,” Mrs. Perino said. “We know that al Qaeda and others try to test a new administration.”

“That is something that we’re very concerned about. We’ve seen that in other countries,” Mrs. Perino said, mentioning the example of a 2004 bombing in Madrid, Spain that killed 191 people.

That bombing, however, was committed just before national elections in an attempt to influence the outcome, by what authorities deemed to be terrorists trying to imitate al Qaeda.

But Mr. Bush, speaking to more than 1,000 executive branch employees from across the federal government on the South Lawn, said the terrorist threat is a main reason that “all of must ensure that the next president and his team can hit the ground running.”

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