The terrorist threat wasn't real, police determined. But the rumors about the terrorist threat could cause terrorism "from those seeking to 'counterattack,'" they warned. A homeland security bulletin, recently obtained by Reason, sheds new light on the panic and confusion that U.S. authorities dealt with in October 2023.
The bulletin demonstrates that national security is a bit like the movie Inception. There's always one more layer. But it's also an important acknowledgment, from within the government, that panic itself can be the enemy. While "abundance of caution" has been the motto of U.S. counterterrorism for over two decades, the bulletin acknowledges that being too credulous about terrorist threats can itself cause problems.
American media was falsely reporting that Hamas had threatened to attack American soil on October 13, 2023, a so-called "day of jihad." The rumor was based on muddled, secondhand coverage of an interview where former Hamas Chairman Khaled Meshaal called for protests in the countries bordering Israel, soon after Hamas' massive October 7 attacks on Israel. Officials across the United States scrambled to deal with the public's fears, often feeding right into them.
