Chertoff's indigestion

Michael Chertoff, secretary of Homeland Security, tells us he has a "gut feeling" that the United States may suffer a terrorist strike this summer. He doesn't have any specific information on when, where or how, but he has a gut feeling.

His comment can be taken either from a positive perspective or a negative, and it is hard to tell which is the appropriate perspective in this instance.

On the positive side, the comment can be understood as a call for greater vigilance as we enter the summer months, when a number of attacks have occurred, and following the recent spate of attacks in London. But if this was the message that Mr. Chertoff wanted to convey, he could have said so without bringing last night's pizza into the discussion.

He could be saying, "I have specific information, but I can't reveal it because doing so would jeopardize intelligence sources and methods." But people who are seeing the same intelligence as the Secretary are denying that such specific information exists.

There are plenty of interpretations on the negative side. In particular, the statement seems to coincide conveniently with the debate in Congress over the possible withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. The statement could have been timed to influence that debate. It's possible.

Or it could be that Mr. Chertoff doesn't yet understand how he needs to speak and behave in the context of his role as Secretary of Homeland Security.

In a bygone era it was said that when America sneezed, the rest of the world came down with the flu. It was an expression of how effects of events in the United States were magnified elsewhere in the world.

Today, it seems that when the Secretary of Homeland Security has indigestion, the rest of us are expected to run and hide.