The United States is more vulnerable to attack in the period between now and the inauguration of a new president in January, Adm. Mike Mullen said last week.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told soldiers at Fort Lewis, Washington June 24 that he has set up a transition team to be ready for the next administration.

“So there's a lot of planning going on right now where I like to look at both the prevention and the response should something happen,” he said, noting that the period of vulnerability begins in the fall and will extend through the first six months of the administration in 2009.

The Pentagon and other national security agencies are all on alert during the period, he said.

Mullen said during recent travels in Asia and Europe leaders he met expressed that the next election is “significant.”

“There is certainly the full range of possibilities that our policies change on January 20th or they don't,” he said.

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