Alan Bernstein, The Houston Chronicle, February 26, 2008
A hellish fire menaces downtown Houston in congressional candidate Brian Klock’s new campaign billboard. Seen through a gun sight, a container ship and a petrochemical plant sit in the foreground as fat targets for terrorists.
And on Klock’s new Web site, actual news video shows the second hijacked plane slamming into the World Trade Center in New York.
Reaction was as mixed Monday as Klock’s use of fictional and factual death scenes as he brought the politics of 9/11 into the 10-candidate race for the Republican nomination against Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson.
“I don’t want to scare people,” said Klock, a Navy Reserve intelligence officer. “I want to make them aware and prepared (for terrorist attacks),” he said. “Showing Houston in flames is reminding them there is a threat,” he added. “What we wanted to do is project mayhem.”
Klock emphasized that he has experience reviewing intelligence about would-be terrorists capable of targeting NASA or Houston’s port and petrochemical industry, and that in Congress he would work to get extra protection for the Houston area.