Reality check

So, ABC's Blotter comes out with a sensationalist story of an imminent terror attack targeting Germany,

U.S. and German officials fear terrorists are in the advanced planning stages of an attack on U.S. military personnel or tourists in Germany.....

But, as to the sudden headline grabbing warning.

"We're unaware of anything new. We have not changed our force posture," a U.S. defense official said on Friday.

In Germany, the Interior Ministry said there had been no change in the security situation.

"There is nothing new," a spokesman for the ministry said. "What we're looking at is the state of affairs that has been long since known. This caused the U.S. authorities to publish a warning to their own citizens in Germany." (On April 20.)

Let's see.... a terror warning that has been "long since known" suddenly appears, overhyped during a US debate over Iraq....

One more rather odd bit. In this Reuters story, the Germans and US officials seem to point towards the Kurdish group Ansar al Islam which is loosely tied to Al Qaeda.

Earlier today, Lebanon's Daily Star had an article about a sudden effort by the Kurds to crack down on Ansar al Islam. (The article has been scrubbed although the linking headline is still up on their site.)

I'm just finding that a very odd coincidence.