In government-speak, “imminent attack plotting” doesn’t necessarily mean an attack is imminent.
Careful parsing of the language reveals a distinction between imminent plotting and an imminent attack.
Likewise, an imminent threat doesn’t necessarily mean an imminent attack.
And, in the view of the government, there’s more than one meaning for imminent, it turns out.
Dictionary.com defines imminent as “likely to occur at any moment.”
But a Justice Department white paper released in February 2013 gives a more nuanced view.
“An ’imminent’ threat of violent attack against the United States does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future,” the memo reads.
That’s because U.S. officials say they can’t wait until preparations for a terrorist act are completed before they take action to defend U.S. interests.
So their idea of taking action against an “imminent threat” involves a more elastic time frame.