News lockdown tighter than in previous wars

Vague government warnings to "be alert" are not enough. Amy Smithson, a specialist in chemical and biological weapons at the Stimson Center, a security think tank, points to "public confusion" and panic in the absence of reliable information about these kinds of threats, and what to do about them.

"There are a lot of Americans now who consider chemical and biological attacks to be inevitable," she says. "The federal government needs to begin putting this into perspective."

It was a leak from a classified briefing, in which the White House told members of Congress of a "100 percent" likelihood of further terrorist attacks, that caused Mr. Bush to restrict the number of lawmakers in the information loop to eight.

That caused an uproar on the Hill, where members said they could not fulfill their watchdog role if they were not informed. This week, the White House backed down, and widened the circle to include the House and Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees.

"I'm glad to see signs of life in Congress. You need a rally-around-the-flag effect, but it can be carried too far," says historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., former assistant to President Kennedy.

Certainly, the Bush administration is casting a wide net in terms of a news blackout. The Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, pulled a website with information about chemicals and emergency plans at 15,000 locations around the country. The Department of Transportation excised pipeline maps from its site. The Justice Department, meanwhile, is not saying anything about the terrorist investigation except for the total number of people detained - 655 as of yesterday. The White House has reduced the number of people in its media-strategy meetings by more than half.

Not surprisingly, the media are concerned about their level of access to this war, which so far has been limited to broad-brush Pentagon briefings and a press trip to aircraft carriers and warships.

"Nearly three days into this operation, we - and therefore the American public - really have no idea how it's going, what's being done in our name, and what effect it's having," Paul Friedman, ABC News executive vice president told the Los Angeles Times.

For now, the public does not seem concerned with the heightened secrecy in Washington. According to a Gallup poll last week - before the airstrikes - 88 percent of Americans thought the Bush administration and the military have been "cooperative enough" in providing information to the news media.

But that could change over time.

"People are so shaken at the moment that they're choosing to trust the government in a way they haven't for a long time," says Brinkley. "But if things don't go well ... then I think people will be more demanding."

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