(The following article by John Mintz was posted on the Washington Post website on December 22.)
WASHINGTON — Federal officials said yesterday that because fresh intelligence suggests al Qaeda is planning multiple catastrophic terrorist attacks in the United States, they were raising the national threat alert status to “high risk,” or code orange, a step administration officials previously had said they were reluctant to take except in the most unusual circumstances.
Some of the worrisome new intelligence indicates al Qaeda operatives are exploring security vulnerabilities on commercial or cargo flights originating overseas and flying into U.S. airports, officials said. It suggests the terrorist network is preoccupied with repeating its Sept. 11, 2001, tactic of hijacking aircraft for use as missiles against U.S. targets, they added.
“The strategic [intelligence] indicators, including al Qaeda’s continued desire to carry out attacks against our homeland, are perhaps greater now than at any point since September 11th,” Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said at an impromptu news conference yesterday. “Information indicates that extremists abroad are anticipating near-term attacks that they believe will rival, or exceed, the attacks in New York [and] at the Pentagon (news – web sites).”
Officials said they have no specific information on where or when an attack might be planned.
Raising the alert level to orange from yellow, or “elevated risk,” results in stepped-up security procedures across the country to protect government buildings, critical infrastructure such as nuclear plants and railroads, harbors, shopping malls and other locations where people congregate.
At U.S. airports yesterday, security screeners and police mobilized in response to the alarm. Some airports, such as Baltimore-Washington International, prepared to bring out more bomb-sniffing dogs to patrol the terminals. At others, parking was restricted at some garages closest to airport terminals, and screeners were advised by supervisors to be extra vigilant.
Area agencies stepped up security in response to the higher threat level. Security is increased at the downtown monuments, said Lt. Patrick O’Brien of the U.S. Park Police. “We’re right in the phase of moving up all our manpower,” he said.
In Virginia and Maryland, officials said state police were increasing patrols, particularly of potential targets.
Ridge made the announcement about the change in the alert status at his agency’s headquarters in Washington yesterday 90 minutes after President Bush (news – web sites) approved the recommendation by top officials of Ridge’s department, the FBI (news – web sites), the CIA (news – web sites), the Pentagon, the Justice Department (news – web sites) and the White House.
Homeland Security and other officials had been working round-the-clock, and all night Saturday, sifting through the intelligence, coordinating with state and local officials and refining yesterday’s announcement.
New information analyzed Friday about al Qaeda efforts to penetrate foreign airports and airlines was soon deemed “credible,” officials said. That information came from “a reliable source that has been corroborated by other things we know,” one official said, declining to elaborate.
But the officials decided to take action upon combining this new information with evidence that al Qaeda terrorists around the globe were saying in telephone calls and e-mails that they expected a series of synchronized attacks in the United States around the holidays, officials said.
“The extremists were expecting a very near-term attack in the United States,” one Homeland Security official said. The government picked up “so many credible threats” that officials concluded they had to take action, the official added.
Captured terrorists have said in interrogations that increased security discourages attacks, officials said.
In recent months, Homeland Security officials had stated that they would avoid frequent raising and lowering of the threat alert so that Americans would not become nonchalant about their warnings. Earlier this year, the government sounded three orange alerts in four months, and many citizens as well as public officials — especially those living far from the perceived top targets of Washington and New York — simply ignored them.
Government officials said they overrode their skepticism of invoking another orange alert because they are deeply alarmed about the possibility of attacks during or just after the holidays.
“There was a consensus in the intelligence community that we go up” to orange alert, Ridge said yesterday in his news conference.
But there has not always been unanimity among top U.S. officials on these matters.
Last May — after deadly al Qaeda suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, and coming on the heels of several orange alerts within a few months — Ridge and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld opposed stepping up to code orange, officials said. In internal discussions, Ridge said then that Americans were growing jaded about the alarms, and Rumsfeld said an orange alert could divert military assets from the battles in Iraq (news – web sites) and Afghanistan (news – web sites), officials said.
But Attorney General John D. Ashcroft disagreed, so Ridge went to Bush with a “consensus” view in favor of an orange alert, officials said — and Bush agreed.
In making yesterday’s announcement, Ridge was facing a complex public relations quandary — how to warn Americans they could be targets in this economically key and heavily traveled holiday season but urging people to continue to enjoy the seasonal festivities.
“I encourage you to continue with your holiday plans,” he said. “Gather with your family and friends. . . . We will show the terrorists this holiday season both our goodwill toward our fellow men, and our readiness and resolve to protect our families.”