-Caveat Lector- (What good is issuing "credible threat" statements without specifics? This is all so "psyops." -- Samantha)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7816-2001Oct29.html FBI Issues 2nd Global Attack Alert Credible Reports Indicate Strikes on U.S. Possible In Next Week, Agency Says By Dan Eggen and Bob Woodward Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, October 30, 2001; Page A01 The FBI issued a second global alert yesterday, warning that more terrorist attacks may be carried out in the next week against U.S. targets at home or abroad. But officials said again that they did not know how or where the attacks might occur. The warning, which came in the wake of a similarly vague FBI bulletin on Oct. 11, was prompted in part by "big and very credible" intelligence reports from abroad in recent days that seem to forecast new attacks, a senior U.S. official said. Other intelligence has been gathered indicating that Osama bin Laden and some of his top lieutenants have essentially delegated authority to order and conduct new attacks down the chain of command, perhaps even to individual cells of bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network, senior officials said. The FBI has identified at least a half dozen such cells in the United States. Some members have been detained in the government's roundup of nearly 1,000 people since the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington. Several officials said the apparent instructions from bin Laden mean that al Qaeda terrorists could strike even if the group's leadership has been eliminated, further increasing the difficulty of detecting and preventing attacks. Capturing or killing bin Laden is one of the primary goals of the U.S. military action in Afghanistan, where the Saudi-born fugitive is believed to be hiding. In a nation still jittery from the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the alert came on the same day as new reports of anthrax contamination in Washington, more confirmed cases of infection in New Jersey, a suspected case in New York and the emergency landing of American Airlines Flight 785 at Dulles International Airport after a report of a threatening note aboard the New York-to-Dallas flight. Four of the plane's 141 passengers received minor injuries while exiting the plane from emergency chutes. [Details, Page A7.] The national alert set off another round of alarms among local and state law enforcement agencies, most of which have already been on their highest state of alert since the suicide hijackings that left about 4,800 people dead seven weeks ago. Administration officials have struggled since Sept. 11 to balance the desire to ease Americans back into their daily routines with the need to keep them alert to the possibility of more terrorist incidents. The effort has led to competing messages from different parts of the government, causing some local and state officials to complain that they have been kept uninformed by the FBI and other federal agencies. With the new Homeland Security Council meeting for the first time yesterday, the federal government tried to offer a more unified message. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who declined to discuss specifically why the government issued the alert, said at an evening news conference that "we believe this threat to be credible, and for that reason it should be taken seriously." President Bush was informed of the new threats early yesterday, and Ashcroft canceled a trip to Toronto that had been scheduled for today, officials said. FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said that the new threats were serious enough to prompt another general warning. He said he believed the previous alert may have averted a terrorist attack, but he provided no details. "I know how difficult it is for . . . state and local officers out there to respond without greater detail," said Mueller, who returned yesterday from a police chiefs' conference in Toronto. "Even given that, I believe it is advisable to alert law enforcement and local authorities as to what knowledge we have received. . . . Doing so gives us a force multiplier that could well prevent another terrorist attack." Assistant D.C. police chief Terrance W. Gainer expressed annoyance last night, saying he had learned of the high state of alert through telephone calls from reporters about the announcement. "Being told to turn on CNN or CNBC doesn't seem to be the best way to communicate what law enforcement ought to know," Gainer said. "Having one more breathless announcement with absolutely no or little substance is not terribly helpful." Bush and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge were informed of the latest threats during the president's daily intelligence briefing. That prompted meetings about whether to issue the warning. The decision to do so was made around noon, despite objections from some within the administration, according to White House aides. Trying to improve on the last alert, which was criticized by some officials as overly vague and alarmist, the president himself telephoned congressional leaders yesterday afternoon, and Ridge phoned others. Around 3:15 p.m., Ridge notified about 40 governors who could be reached in a conference call that the FBI was planning to issue another warning. The governors were told that while the government had new, credible information of the possibility of another terrorist attack, "no states were named, no location indicated," said a spokesperson for Gov. Gary Locke of Washington. "Whether this was more serious or less serious than the last one, [Ridge didn't provide] a quantifying or qualifying indication like that," said Dana Middleton, Locke's spokesperson. FBI field offices and U.S. attorneys' offices around the country received the latest warning at about 4:30 p.m. yesterday. The decision to issue a warning was prompted in part by U.S. intelligence analysts' conclusion that terrorist cells no longer need approval for operations from top al Qaeda lieutenants, officials said. Bin Laden may believe that his communications system -- which involves an intricate network of telecommunications, e-mails, telephones and couriers -- has been disrupted or is vulnerable, officials said. U.S. military strikes in Afghanistan and CIA covert actions have specifically targeted bin Laden's communications for destruction. One senior official said that "all the intelligence just reached a critical mass. It's an accumulation." A top-secret "Threat Matrix," which is used by U.S. intelligence officials to weigh terrorist threats, lists 60 to 80 terrorist threats each day that specialists believe are credible enough to pass along to top Bush administration officials, sources have said. At the same time, officials said much intelligence reporting is circular: Sources may be repeating old information and passing it on. Justice and FBI officials said the new threats are not believed to have any connection with Halloween, nor do they add credence to a widely circulated e-mail claiming that coordinated terror attacks are planned on that day at U.S. shopping malls. The FBI has dismissed those warnings as a hoax. The warning came on a day when several U.S. cities were attempting to return to normal routines. In Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley and former president George H.W. Bush were on hand to reopen the sky deck of the Sears Tower, the nation's tallest building, for the first time since Sept. 11. New York will be on particular watch tonight when the city hosts two major sporting events. At Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, the New York Yankees will play the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 3 of the World Series; at Manhattan's Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks will host the Washington Wizards and Michael Jordan in his official return to the NBA. The new alert also came on the same day that a coalition of legal, immigration and civil liberties groups demanded that law enforcement agencies disclose more information about hundreds of people who have been detained as part of the effort to avert future attacks and investigate the Sept. 11 attacks. "We have a situation here where there has been an unprecedented number of arrests, and we don't know whether they have been carried out in accordance with the law, because they've been carried out with an unprecedented veil of secrecy," said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies. Staff writers Paul Duggan, Amy Goldstein, Allan Lengel, Dana Milbank, Rachel Alexander Nichols, Eric Pianin, Robert E. Pierre and Martin Weil, and correspondents Jeff Adler and Pamela Ferdinand, contributed to this report. © 2001 The Washington Post Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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