The Bush administration raised the nation’s terror alert level Sunday, warning that new intelligence suggests the threat in this country may be greater now than at any time since the Sept. 11 attacks.
U.S. officials, citing sharply increased terrorist communications in recent days, acted urgently to move the alert status from yellow to orange–from “elevated risk” to “high risk.”
At a hastily called news conference Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge urged government officials and the public to be vigilant. He said the intercepted messages from suspected terrorists suggested large attacks might be planned.
“Information indicates that extremists abroad are anticipating near-term attacks that they believe will rival–or exceed–the scope and impact of those we experienced in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania [more than] two years ago,” Ridge said.
Ridge said Al Qaeda terrorists remain interested in using aircraft in their attacks–a particularly troubling warning during the holiday season, when millions of Americans fly.
Officials warned that the increased security might cause delays at airports, but a Chicago official said people departing O’Hare and Midway airports should continue to show up two hours before their flights.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Sunday night that New York, Washington and Los Angeles remain priority targets for the terrorist network.
The official said the decision to increase the threat level came Sunday morning after a series of high-level discussions involving Ridge’s office, the Justice Department, the FBI and the White House.
The official said “chatter,” or communication, in extremist circles had spiked in the roughly 48 hours leading up to Ridge’s announcement. Reports have led the intelligence community to believe the next two weeks are the time of maximum peril, the official said.
The official said international flights into the U.S. remain a top concern, as well as cargo flights.
For about the past two months, officials have been operating on the assumption, backed by what they say is credible intelligence, that Al Qaeda has put off plans to conduct small-scale operations in the U.S. in order to avoid a massive security crackdown. Leaders of the terrorist group feared that such a crackdown would make it impossible to attain the real goal: a mass-casualty attack on par with Sept. 11, 2001, according to senior U.S. officials.
The State Department, in a worldwide caution issued Sunday to U.S. citizens overseas, predicted attempts by Al Qaeda to mount assaults “more devastating than the Sept. 11 attack, possibly involving nonconventional weapons such as chemical or biological agents.”
Ridge emphasized the seriousness with which the U.S. views the latest intelligence.
“The strategic indicators, including Al Qaeda’s continued desire to carry out attacks against our homeland, are perhaps greater now than at any point since Sept. 11,” Ridge said.
Worries about airlines
Homeland Security officials have worried about the vulnerability of the aviation industry, especially because of its vital role in the U.S. economy. Ridge said Al Qaeda was evaluating aviation procedures “both here and abroad to find gaps in our security posture that can be exploited.”
Despite greatly increased airport security, there have been highly publicized breaches. This year a North Carolina college student was able to sneak box cutters and other suspicious material aboard several Southwest Airlines planes. A New York man stowed away on a cargo airplane by hiding himself in a crate.
Terrorist experts are worried, however, that the greatest threat to the U.S. aviation industry may come from outside the aircraft in the form of shoulder-fired missiles.
Such missiles have been fired at Western aircraft in Iraq and were responsible for the fatal crash of at least one Army helicopter. In Kenya last year, an Israeli airliner narrowly missed disaster after two missiles were launched at it after takeoff.
The Homeland Security Department, while concerned about aviation, is ratcheting up vigilance in other areas as well. Ridge said the federal government would be redeploying personnel to beef up security at the nation’s borders, ports and on coastal waters.
Despite the threats, he urged Americans to continue their holiday plans. At the same time, he said, Americans should form emergency plans and have supplies ready.
1st change since May
Sunday marked the fourth time this year that the Bush administration has raised the terror threat advisory to orange from yellow. It was the first time the level has changed since May.
The administration has been under pressure to limit the frequency of high alerts. Such increases add significantly to law-enforcement and other costs of state and local governments, which must pay overtime to increase security at possible target sites.
“The increasing of the threat level is significant,” said David Heyman, director of homeland security studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in an e-mail sent by the Washington think tank. “Every time we go to orange, it costs $1 billion a week to put in place enhanced protective measures across the country.”
Noting the burden this puts on major cities, Heyman said, “As a result, after the last threat alert in May, the administration indicated that it would be much more conservative raising the levels in the future. This new warning reflects a real concern on behalf of the administration that the threat to Americans today is more serious than in the past.”
New York, which has its own alert system and has been on orange alert since the Sept. 11 attacks, did not raise its threat level but did step up its security measures, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference Sunday.
The city ratcheted up its Operation Atlas counterterrorism program, implementing checkpoints at bridges and tunnels, increasing patrols in subways and on waterways and raising security at airports, major transportation hubs, financial institutions, the theater district and other high-profile potential targets, the mayor said.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly discounted a report on the ABC News Web site Friday that an imminent threat to the city might involve a female suicide bomber. To the best knowledge of the police, Kelly said, there was “no substance to that report.”
Bloomberg said he was not aware of any specific plots targeting New York.
“We always have to assume we’re a target,” he said. “Assume the worst and you’ll probably get the best.”
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RED: SEVERE
ORANGE: High – Security efforts increased; extra measures at public events
YELLOW: Elevated
BLUE: Guarded
GREEN: Low
