FBI Issues New Terrorism Warning

By Karen Gullo Associated Press Writer Monday, Oct. 29, 2001; 6:13 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON –– The FBI issued a new terrorism warning Monday asking Americans and law enforcement to be on the highest alert for possible attacks this week in the United States and abroad.

The alert was based on new information that was deemed credible but was "not specific as to intended targets or as to intended methods," FBI Director Robert Mueller said.

The warning went out to 18,000 law enforcement agencies.

"The administration has concluded based on information developed that there may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against United States interests over the next week," Attorney General John Ashcroft said.

He said that while the information was not specific, the FBI was issuing the alert to the American people because "they can make good judgments and can understand this kind of information."

The attorney general asked citizens to be patient if they encounter additional security measures and to note any suspicious activities.

"We urge Americans in the course of their normal activities to remain alert and to report unusual circumstances and inappropriate behavior to the appropriate authorities," he said.

Mueller and Ashcroft declined to discuss the nature or source of the information that prompted the warning, saying only that it was deemed credible.

Ashcroft canceled plans to travel to Toronto to address a conference of police chiefs.

The alert is the second this month. On Oct. 11 the FBI said it had gathered "certain information" that additional terrorism attacks could occur within days.

Earlier Monday, President Bush was asked whether the government expected more attacks from groups associated with Osama bin Laden, the primary suspect in the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings. Bush said, "We believe the country must stay on alert, that our enemies still hate us."

Underscoring the balancing act that officials face in warning the public but not inciting panic, Bush urged people not to stop their daily activities.

"The American public must go about their lives. I understand it's a fine balance," Bush said.

-- (spread@the.fear), October 29, 2001

Answers

This is it, the BIG one.

-- (time to @ go. nuclear), October 29, 2001.

I think they will go for more of the fear factor before they nuke us. Smallpox would be sufficient to make the people go bezerk with fear, running amok and killing each other to get the vaccine. Then, while we are all freaking out and all the security personell have gone home to protect their families, they could easily blow up critical structures with nukes. Most of our military is off pounding their puds in the deserts of Afghanistan, so the only thing we have here is a bunch of lightweight reserve guards who won't even report for duty. This is what they hoped for when they told Dubya that Bin was over there, and Dubya was stupid enough to take the bait. Now it's going to be a free-for-all, every man for himself.

-- (mayhem@fast.approaching), October 29, 2001.

So, lessee, we're supposed to make good judgments based on, and be able to understand, information that is deemed credible but is not specific.

No problem....

-- Sam (Wtrmkr53@aol.com), October 29, 2001.

Damn, Sam. That was really good. ;o)

-- I enjoyed (Talking@to you. 1 1/2 years ago), October 29, 2001.

Something bad will be done...

to whom? We don't know.

by whom? We don't know.

when? We don't know.

where? We don't know.

what? We don't know.

This is a warning? A warning is something more specific like, "helen! (to whom) ... the goats (by whom) ... are at this moment (when) ... advancing upon you from behind (where) ... in order to pound you into the dirt! (what)

-- helen (wake@me.when.its.over), October 29, 2001.

I saw Ashcroft make this announcement. He looked like he knew something very bad but wasn't revealing it. I got the impression he knew we were in deep shit. Even though he and his family will be able to hide in a bunker, it seemed as though he was very depressed and felt guilty because so many of us are going to die.

-- (something very ominous @ impending. doom), October 29, 2001.

lol! Helen, thats true! However, TPTB can't tell us everything because they can't lay their hand on the table. They have to protect their sources - so they still have sources!

Understand this:

They know something. They have six different operatives they have to talk to. They tell them six different stories and wait to see which one leaks out.

Hang tight. Watch and learn. ;o)

-- A rose (By any@other.name), October 29, 2001.

"felt guilty because so many of us are going to die.

Shut up, stupid. Or, define "many".

-- (Be@more.specific), October 29, 2001.

Yes! I can receive telepathic messages from the TeeVee also! Ashcroft was saying the terrorists are going to infect all Halloween candy with smallpox! We are all going to die! He also told me that Lady Logic knows everything about National Security operatives! Pay attention ONLY to her so you can all watch and learn. Just stay in your bunkers until Lady Logic says it's safe for you to come out. That is all.

the one-eyed dog howls at midnight

-- (too funny@too.funny), October 29, 2001.

Don't worry, go back to sleep little Kafirs.

-- (Osama bin Biden @ wouldn't.you like to know), October 29, 2001.

When I heard this on the radio, all i could think was... "Be alert?? Cripes! I was already as alert as I know how to be! What the XXXX else do you expect me to do?? Jump out of my skin and dance around in my skeleton for Halloween?"

Other than that it seemed very informative.

-- Miserable SOB (misery@misery.com), October 29, 2001.

Why would they warn us if they were planning to attack? If they were actually going to attack, they want to catch us off guard for maximum effect.

I think they are using reverse psychology for maximum fear maintenance. When they are NOT planning to attack anytime soon, they send out warnings to keep us in fear. After a while of nothing happening we begin to relax again, and that is when they WILL do another attack.

-- (a warning means @ nothing. will happen), October 29, 2001.

The US is intercepting messages, that lead them to believe there will soon be another attack.

-- (cin@cin.cin), October 30, 2001.

Looks like the Bush administration has lied to us once again. They said they did not have specific information about the area, target, or nature of the attack, when indeed they did.

*******

FBI searches for six men who had nuclear, pipeline information

By Martin Merzer, Lenny Savino and Sumana Chatterjee Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - As the nation again stands on high alert, the FBI is searching for six men stopped by police in the Midwest last weekend but released - even though they possessed photographs and descriptions of a nuclear power plant in Florida and the Trans-Alaska pipeline, a senior law enforcement official said Tuesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration imposed new flight restrictions around nuclear plants nationwide Tuesday, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission advised the nation's 103 nuclear plants late Monday to fortify security.

The FAA temporarily banned all flights near New York's Yankee Stadium, where President Bush stood before a huge crowd at a World Series game Tuesday night and - wearing a New York City Fire Department jacket - tossed the ceremonial first pitch.

"It helps to keep the fabric of our country strong," said spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Meanwhile, an administration official said the urgent terrorism alert sounded Monday evening by Attorney General John Ashcroft was based largely on a message transmitted Sunday night by an Osama bin Laden supporter in Canada to Afghanistan.

That message referred to a major event that was going to take place "down south" this week, the official said.

Knight Ridder reported Monday that American officials feared that members of bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network had been unleashed to launch attacks without specific permission from their superiors.

On Tuesday, agency spokesmen said the FAA's flight restrictions and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's security recommendations were based on Ashcroft's general alert rather than a specific threat. Ashcroft warned that Americans at home or abroad could be struck by another terrorist attack this week.

The incident in the Midwest apparently contributed to the new terror warning. The six men stopped by police were traveling in groups of three in two white sedans, said the senior law enforcement official, who requested anonymity.

In addition to the photographs and other suspicious material, they carried "box cutters and other equipment," the official said. They appeared to be from the Middle East and held Israeli passports.

They were let go after the Immigration and Naturalization Service determined the passports were valid and that the men had entered the United States legally, the official said.

A spokesman for the INS called the report unfounded. "We have absolutely no information at this point in time to substantiate that story," said INS spokesman Russ Bergeron.

It could not be learned in what state the six men were stopped or how they aroused suspicion. It was not known if their true identities matched those on the passports, or why the FBI was not releasing their names or descriptions.

Investigators think the men almost certainly have changed cars by now and have fled to Canada or elsewhere.

Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller were "furious" that the INS allowed the men to be released without holding them at least until the FBI could be consulted, the official said.

Ashcroft and Mueller appeared Monday evening at a hastily called news conference to announce that the government had "credible" but vague information that another wave of terrorist attacks could strike Americans within a week.

Shortly after the announcement, Vice President Dick Cheney moved once again to an undisclosed, secure location and remained there Tuesday.

There are three nuclear power facilities in Florida: Florida Power & Light Co.'s Turkey Point facility, south of Miami, and St. Lucie facility, near Fort Pierce, and Florida Power Corp.'s Crystal River plant, about 85 miles north of St. Petersburg.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a new threat advisory Monday night to all nuclear power plants, other electrical plants, a dozen decommissioned reactors and three nuclear fuel-manufacturing facilities, said spokesman Victor Dricks.

The action was in response to the FBI's general warning, he said, and the commission was "not aware of any specific threats" against any power plant.

The advisory suggested the plants fortify perimeter security and, if necessary, call in help from local or state law officers or the local National Guard.

At least one Florida plant was doing that Tuesday. At Crystal River, workers installed concrete road barricades at strategic spots inside the sprawling site, which includes one nuclear reactor and four fossil-fuel plants. Citrus County sheriff's deputies were summoned to supplement the plant's full-time security force, said Florida Power spokesman Mac Harris.

Florida Power & Light, which runs the two other nuclear plants in Florida, has adopted a corporate policy not to discuss security measures or threats in detail.

Spokeswoman Rachel Scott said FPL's plants remained at the highest level of alert. "We are in very close communication with all levels of law enforcement, including the FBI, to ensure we have the security measures in place to protect the plants," she said.

Also Tuesday, the FAA restricted all flights below 18,000 feet and within 10 miles of 86 "sensitive nuclear sites" until Nov. 6, the agency said. Exceptions can be made for law enforcement, medical and firefighting flights.

The 800-mile-long Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which delivers 17 percent of the nation's domestic oil production, runs from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean to Valdez on the Pacific.

Tim Wolston, a spokesman for Alayeska, the company that runs the pipeline, said it had not received any information about the Midwest incident but it has enhanced security in recent weeks.

Still, the incident apparently contributed to the many pieces of information that triggered the FBI's general alert.

A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agency's warning was based on messages from known or suspected operatives of bin Laden in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jakarta, Indonesia, Afghanistan and elsewhere during the last week, coupled with a new message Sunday that suggested an attack within the next week.

However, the official said the sudden flood of messages could be "deliberate deception of the kind we saw before September 11," when bin Laden associates sent a flurry of messages suggesting a forthcoming attack on U.S. interests in Europe or the Middle East. Those messages held no hint of the U.S. hijackings to come.

Bin Laden is suspected of orchestrating the attacks on the four jetliners, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed nearly 5,000 people.

On Capitol Hill, some senators criticized the White House warning as alarmist.

"We all know that there could be another terrorist threat, and we know it could be imminent," Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J.

Others said the president was doing the best he could under the circumstances.

"I give him the benefit of the doubt," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge defended the administration's decision to issue the alert, and said it was unavoidably imprecise.

"If we had specific information about the type of weapon or a specific location, this would have certainly been shared with the local or state officials," Ridge said. "Unfortunately, we view the information as credible, but not specific."

He said it was a "convergence of credible sources that occasioned the alert. More than the usual, is all I can tell you."

In a related development, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta conceded that many problems remain with airport security procedures.

Last week, security screeners in New Orleans failed to challenge a passenger who carried a handgun in his carry-on baggage.

Mineta said special agents from the FAA and other agencies would inspect screening procedures, and he warned that more flights and passengers might be delayed during the process.

Ridge urged Americans to find new reservoirs of patience and to remain alert, but also to find a way to proceed with life as normally as possible. He noted that Bush was keeping his commitment to attend the World Series game.

"America has to continue to be America," Ridge said.

"What terrorists try to do is instill such uncertainty, such fear, such hesitation, that you don't do things that you normally do. And all we're saying with a general alert is to continue to live your lives, continue to be America, but be aware, be alert, be on guard."

-- they knew the target (was a nuclear power plant @ in. Florida), October 30, 2001.

go shopping, and be on guard?????

bodyguard shopping,how fun.

-- al-d. (dogs@zianet.com), October 31, 2001.

Go about your business as usual, wearing a bulletproof vest, like Dubya at the baseball game.

-- (Don't worry @ be. happy!), October 31, 2001.