November 9, 2004: FBI and Homeland Security Say No Threat to Ohio County

FBI officials and homeland security officials at both the state and federal level say they are not aware of any specific election day threats against Ohio’s Warren County where local election officials had locked down the county administration building on election day citing security concerns. County officials had claimed that the move had been prompted by information they had received from the FBI and Homeland Security. But FBI officials, charged with overseeing anti-terrorism activities in southern Ohio, tell the Cincinnati Enquirer that they received no information about a terror threat in the county. “The FBI did not notify anyone in Warren County of any specific terrorist threat to Warren County before Election Day,” FBI spokesman Michael Brooks explains. And a spokeswoman for Ohio’s top homeland security official, Public Safety Director Ken Morckel, likewise contends that they knew of no heightened terror warning for the Greater Cincinnati area on election night. [Cincinnati Enquirer, 11/10/2004]