Al Qaeda plan to hit during elections puts US on alert

Federal authorities will begin nationwide preparations to counter the threat of terrorist attacks aimed at the national political conventions and the US presidential election, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said on Monday. Though the presidential elections have occurred without interruption, the war on terror poses a different risk: the possibility of coordinated attacks on helpless civilians.

‘‘In this country, we soon enter a season that is rich with symbolic opportunities for the terrorists to try to shake our will,’’ Ridge said. Ridge said security planning would also encompass the May 29 dedication of the WW II Memorial in Washington. Ridge cited the March 11 attacks in Spain as the backdrop for his announcement. The bombings led to the electoral defeat of PM Jose Maria Aznar. Given the outcome in Spain, the Al Qaeda network might find the US elections ‘‘too good to pass up,’’ National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said.

Postponing a national election would be almost unthinkable. ‘‘This is a democracy of 300 million people and an election is going to go forward,’’ said Gary Hart, a former Democratic senator from Colorado, and co-chair of a commission that warned of the nation’s vulnerability to terrorism before the 9/11 attacks. —