U.S. intelligence monitors are picking up less terror threat talk than a year ago, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Thursday.A variety of factors could be contributing to the lull, Ridge said, and he warned that terrorists “are strategic actors and long-range planners” who could be merely lying low before striking again. “There certainly is a diminution, reduction in the amount of intelligence, and the decibel level is lower,” Ridge told reporters, comparing information picked up over the past several months to the similar period a year ago.Full Story