Follow-up - Follow-up

The government followed up the attack threat with the noting that this information had been floating around for three to four years.

Their reasoning is that attack plans usually take years to come to fruition. I'm just curious as to why they didn't announce the alert last month or the month before that or New Years Eve or the previous New Years Eve. If these plans take years to go forth than a year or 18 months should be just as relevant as today.

I just can't help but think that the announcement came as a means to increase the security at NYC for the Republican convention without having to incur the cost directly. This way the security is in place and the cost is booked to something other than the Republicans.