Reply #74: The key in that is "just the false scare of a threat of using"

[Tinoire]

the emphasis is on word "using". Nowhere does he say the threat is false. It's the false "use", the threat to use something very real that he's talking about. These questions were asked after fake anthrax letters had just sent Washington into a panic. That's an example of a "false scare of a threat of using". There was no anthrax in those letters -it was threatening, it was calculated to scare, but anthrax itself was very real.

we're going to see information continue to spread as to how these weapons can be, in fact, manufactured in a home-grown laboratory, as such. So it's a serious problem as far as living in the information age that people who are acquiring this kind of information will not act responsibly, but rather act in a terrorist type of fashion.

Cohen was justifying the need to "really intensify our efforts" and goes on that

"we're going to identify those 120 cities and work with them very closely to make sure that they can prepare themselves for what is likely to be a threat well into the future."

We've seen by way of example of the World Trade Center the international aspects of international terrorism coming to our home territory. We've also seen domestic terrorism with the Oklahoma bombing. So it's a real threat that's here today. It's likely to intensify in the years to come as more and more groups have access to this kind of information and the ability to produce them.