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Threat code orange Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/869630.asp?0cv=CA01http://www.msnbc.com/news/869630.asp?0cv=CA01
State Dept. warns Americans abroad
NBC: U.S. may raise
threat assessment
to 2nd-highest level
WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 — The State Department warned Americans abroad Thursday of the threat of new terrorist attacks using chemical or biological weapons. The worldwide alert came as U.S. security officials told NBC News that they were considering raising their assessment of the threat of terrorist attacks to orange, its second-highest level, citing intelligence indications of plans for a “major attack” as early as next week.
THE THREAT ASSESSMENT has been at the third of five levels — yellow, or “elevated” — since Sept. 24.
The assessment was last at orange, or “high,” for two weeks beginning Sept. 10, the day before the first anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington. U.S. officials said at the time that two captured members of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network had told interrogators of specific plans to carry out new attacks.
Homeland Security Department officials told NBC News’ Pete Williams on Thursday that the level of concern was now at its highest since the Sept. 11 attacks. Administration officials said they were reassessing the threat level “one day at a time” as the United States moved closer to taking military action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, which critics contend would inflame anti-U.S. sentiment among Muslims worldwide.
TIE TO IRAQ ACTION DISPUTED
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed talk that new attacks could be tied specifically to action in Iraq.
“It doesn’t take an attack on Iraq to unleash an attack, a terrorist attack on the United States. They’ve already done it,” Rumsfeld said. “What do you think September 11th was?”
But a senior Bush administration official told NBC News that U.S. intelligence had been intercepting a steadily rising number of conversations among suspected members and sympathizers of al-Qaida. The new intelligence, some of which was described as “very general,” suggested that the possibility of attacks around the world was higher now.
Another concern is the arrival next week of the Hajj, the weeklong period each year when observant Muslims make a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, U.S. officials said.
The officials told NBC News that intelligence had picked up discussions of possible attacks around the Hajj, while other officials said extremists could be motivated by renewed religious fervor to launch new attacks.
FBI: ‘SOFT TARGETS’ AT PERIL
The State Department, meanwhile, issued an advisory warning Americans abroad to “remain vigilant due to a heightened threat of terrorist actions that may target civilians.” It said some of the threat came from groups linked to al-Qaida.
The worldwide caution, the department’s first since Nov. 20, specifically warned of the possibility of “attacks by non-conventional weapons,” saying terrorists’ use of chemical or biological weapons “must be considered a growing threat.”
U.S. officials cited intelligence sources who reported that terrorists may have plans to strike U.S. troops stationed in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa and in Kenya, where al-Qaida bombed the U.S. Embassy five years ago.
The State Department advisory also said terrorists were likely to go after “soft targets,” such as places of worship and schools. The warning echoed language used in recent reports the FBI has issued to local law enforcement officials reviewing recent al-Qaida methods.
Text of State Department warning
FBI officials stressed that they had no specific information indicating that new attacks were planned, but they told NBC News that the agency’s weekly intelligence reports to local authorities had cited al-Qaida for favoring attacks on so-called soft targets, which they described as locations where many people gather.
Examples include the two nightclubs that were bombed Oct. 6 in Bali, where nearly 200 people were killed, many of them tourists, said the officials, who said the agency’s next weekly report would single out other soft targets as particularly worrisome, including apartment buildings, hotels and shopping malls.
Security officials told NBC News that other targets, chosen for their symbolic value, could include the New York Stock Exchange, the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol and other national landmarks.
“It’s something we’re talking about each day,” an official of the Homeland Security Department said.
FBI: Al-Qaida still top threat to U.S.
By MSNBC.com’s Alex Johnson with NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski and Pete Williams.
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