Rick Perry and the terrorist school threat

It was my understanding that when President Bush started his war on
terrorism that he told everyone to remain vigilant; that we could be
attacked anywhere anytime. I assumed that Governor Rick set in place
terrorists precautions and defenses throughout the state and that
included making sure our children were safe at school. Maybe I was
wrong.

If there is one thing that is perfectly clear to me, it is that Governor
Rick is lost and confused in the governor's office. During the
legislative session he was so busy campaigning against Senator Kay's
contemplation of running for governor that he missed the session. That
is why so many bills were vetoed.

And now, sad to say, we have another self promoting example of Governor
Rick reacting to John WorldPeace. Backing up for a moment: 1) When I
talked about the colonias problem earlier this year, President George
immediately sent the HUD secretary to El Paso to talk about colonias.
2) When I talked about a statue of Juan Seguin on the capitol grounds,
Rick went to the San Jacinto monument to dedicate a road to Juan
Seguin. 3) When I talked about school prayer, Rick went off to
Palestine to get in on the action. Then of course he backed up and
changed his mind. But the prayer rally will still take place December
17th and WorldPeace will be there. 4) And when WorldPeace said he would
allocate half his appointments to women, Rick appointed a female
secretary of state. 5) And so on.

On Tuesday night at 10:00 pm, Eileen Faxas with KHOU-TV in Houston ran a
consumer protection story on phone dialers which featured your's truly
John WorldPeace. Due to the fact that I have called virtually everyone
in Houston over eight times in the last 10 months, Houstonians were able
to put the face with the name. Calls came in all day Wednesday to my
office from people who had seen the story. The story ran again at 6:00
am and again at noon and 6:00 pm on Wednesday. I own Houston.

In addition, on Wednesday the Dallas Observer ran a story on WorldPeace,
again with a picture.

Now Governor Rick is telling everyone that there is a potential threat
regarding the schools but it is really not a real threat. Sort of like
President George saying that we should be vigilant against terrorism but
that plane that subsequently went down was not terrorists and that
explosion in Pasadena was not terrorists.

The truth is that at any moment schools could be blown up, more
buildings collapsed, more anthrax letters, and so on. We must continue
to live in fear of retaliation until President George kills all the
terrorists in the world.

You all remember how Senator Gramm shut down Tony Sanchez two hours
after he announced his candidacy for governor? Well Tricky Ricky needed
to do a little counter usurping of the publicity that WorldPeace was
getting and so he decided to scare all our children.

If Governor Rick has not secured all our schools by now, not just
against terrorists but against sociopathic children like those at
Columbine, then someone needs to wake him up.

The truth is that Rick is lost. He does not know what to do. He does
not know how to lead the legislature. He does not know how to protect
our children. He does not even know how to take care of these problems
without letting the public realize that he does not know how to take
care of anything.

In the meantime, I understand that Tony Sanchez has employed 2,000
illegal Hispanics to dig him and his family a network of maze like
Afghanie caves on his 13,000 acre ranch. I heard that he hired a couple
of Taliban and a third cousin by marriage of bin Laden's to oversee the
work. And as of yesterday, I understand that he has added a school for
his children and grandchildren. He needs to get it finished before he
starts his campaign for governor on March 11th next year.

There are just two candidates for governor in 2002: John WorldPeace and
Perry Sanchez; a real Texan and a real dangerous joke.

John WorldPeace
The next governor of Texas

December 13, 2001

_______________
In Texas, a threat
Area schools keeping doors open after FBI alert of 'low-level' threat
By Ken Herman and Maeve Reston

American-Statesman Staff

Thursday, December 13, 2001

An unspecified Texas school may be targeted for attack by two people
bent on retribution for the U.S. bombings in Afghanistan, state and federal
officials said Wednesday.

An FBI alert issued to law enforcement and state officials late Tuesday
said the vague threat, passed on by a foreign government working with U.S.
authorities, was relayed by "a source of unknown reliability."

The information is uncorroborated, according to the alert, issued by the

FBI's Houston office.

Austin-area school officials said classes are on for today, but so are
plans for heightened vigilance at campuses.

"We don't want to create panic," said Pat Fuller, police chief for the
Austin school district, who declined to discuss the alert message sent to
campus principals Wednesday morning. "This is an extremely low-level threat. .
. .
We get threats all the time."

Michael Bailey, whose children attend Odom Elementary School and
Bedichek Middle School, said sending students home as a result of a vague threat
might have sparked unnecessary panic.

"What are you going to do? Keep your kid home from school indefinitely?"

Bailey said. "You have to go through with life and keep on going."

The threat "definitely concerns me," said Pete Maldonado, the father of
two students at Ridgetop Elementary. He did not hear about it until
Wednesday evening and said school officials should have notified parents earlier.

The parents learned of the alert through news reports and were not
notified by the district.

"They should get some additional security guards and have some kind of
surveillance to make sure the school and the kids are safe," Maldonado
said.  "Because of September 11, any kind of threats like this need to be taken
seriously."

Gov. Rick Perry, urging parents to send their children to school, called
the threat vague, unsubstantiated and not verified. He said a similar threat
was issued against an unspecified school in Nevada.

"The FBI considers it to be a low-level threat," he said at a Wednesday
afternoon news conference. "Nonetheless, I believe it is important that
school officials are notified and that parents, teachers, administrators
and law enforcement personnel are extra-vigilant.

"Texans sent their children to school today and they should do so
tomorrow,"  Perry added. "My children went to school this morning. The FBI agent in
charge in Houston sent his children to school this morning."

Perry and the FBI official were among the few parents who knew about the
threat before the school day started Wednesday. The alert was issued
Tuesday night, but state officials did not make it public until midday
Wednesday.

Perry defended that decision: "The information started flowing in late
last night. The idea that you could have made the information public before
school I think is a little bit far-fetched."

Austin school district officials, through their police, received the
alert at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, but Fuller said he did not get the information until
7:30 a.m. Wednesday. He said he assumed that a dispatcher read the message
Tuesday night but did not contact him that night because the threat was a
low-level one.

Other school districts and Central Texas law enforcement agencies
reported receiving information of the alert a half-hour after the governor's news
conference.

In Houston, FBI Special Agent Bob Doguim said the accuracy of the
information in the threat is unknown.

"The initial concern is that this might cause undue panic," he said. "We
are emphasizing that it is uncorroborated.

"Our responsibility is to let them know this is out there," he said,
adding it was better to "err on the side of caution."

Officials at the University of Texas and the Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board said they had not been notified about the threat.

The FBI alert did not distinguish between public elementary and
secondary schools and other schools.

Asked why this threat rated treatment beyond the usual bomb scare, Perry
said, "The FBI."

"This is a directive from the FBI. We're at war. . . . This met some
specific levels for them," he said. "As they notified us I thought it was
important enough, when you start talking about the children of Texas, even an
unsubstantiated report that is unspecific, the people of the State of
Texas need to know that piece of information."

In Williamson County, the Round Rock, Leander, and Georgetown school
districts were alerted shortly after 12:30 p.m.

"We can't close schools over a vague threat like that," said Cathy
Brandewie, community relations director for the 33,000-student Round Rock district
north of Austin. "We will be as alert and security-conscious as we have always
been."

Today is the last day of classes before winter holidays begin in the
Round Rock district.

In Leander, district spokesman Bill Britcher said school officials will
be reminded to "pay attention to all calls and to security."

The situation in the Leander district was complicated Wednesday when a
phoned-in bomb threat forced the evacuation of Cedar Park High School.

The school's 2,100 students were evacuated until 3 p.m.

Mark Henry, director of the Safe Schools program in the Georgetown
school district, said, "Until somebody comes up with something more specific
concerning this threat, all we can do is remain more vigilant."

School districts in Hays County had no plans to adjust schedules.

"We've informed all of our campus administrators and put everyone on
alert," said Marion Running, superintendent of the Wimberley school district.
"We're just monitoring the situation."

In the Dripping Springs and Hays districts, administrators put crisis
management plans in place as a precaution. Officials of the San Marcos
district said they were on a heightened state of alert.

By 3 p.m., calls from concerned parents had begun to trickle in, said
Julie Crimmins, a spokeswoman for the Hays district.

"We're having a little bit of reaction from parents," she said. "The
superintendent is assuring our principals what to say. Above all, the
children are fine in school."


American-Statesman staff Erik Rodriguez, Bob Banta and Sharon Jayson,
and The Associated Press contributed to this report. You may contact Ken Herman
at kherman@statesman.com or 445-1718.

Text of FBI alert from Houston FBI office


"A source of unknown reliability advised that two individuals may be
conspiring to retaliate against an unspecified Texas school for the U.S.
military bombing in Afghanistan. This information came from a foreign
government working in cooperation with U.S. authorities, and joint
attempts to determine the accuracy of the information are ongoing. It is to be
emphasized this information is uncorroborated and if any additional
information is developed it will be immediately disseminated."