Based on new intelligence and an increase in communication between suspected terrorists, the Bush administration on Tuesday raised the nation’s terror alert warning to its second-highest level and took steps to tighten security at federal buildings in the United States and overseas.
“We have no specific threat to America, but we are taking everything seriously,” said President Bush, who approved the plan to raise the alert warning at a briefing with Justice Department officials Tuesday morning.
Attorney General John Ashcroft and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge announced the new alert level — code orange, signaling a “high risk” — the day before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The heightened alert also comes amid a debate on whether the United States should use military force to topple Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Americans were urged to go about their daily business.
“We call on the American people to remain alert, but defiant,” Ashcroft said.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said “the American people need to live their lives.” Bush said he will keep his schedule on Sept. 11 and participate in commemorative events at the Pentagon, in Pennsylvania and in New York. The president also plans to address the nation Wednesday evening.
Ashcroft said the decision to raise the nation’s alert level was based on tips from informants received in the past 24 hours and an increase in communications, “or chatter,” among suspected terrorists that was similar to the communications traffic detected by U.S. intelligence agencies before last year’s attacks.
Ashcroft said last year’s increase in chatter led U.S. intelligence to believe an attack was planned on U.S. interests overseas. Although that did not turn out to be the case, Ashcroft said that once again U.S. intelligence is focusing on possible attacks on U.S. interests abroad.
“I want to emphasize that the recommendation was not made to move to the highest level of alert, an action that would have been triggered by specific credible intelligence pointing toward an imminent attack on the United States homeland,” Ashcroft said.
Harvey Kushner, a terrorism expert who heads the Criminal Justice Department at Long Island University in New York, said the decision to place the nation on a higher alert was based partly on “prudent security” and partly on the need to appear proactive in case an attack occurs.
“The government has been burned on various occasions for not connecting the dots,” Kushner said, referring to criticism of the FBI and CIA for their failure to discover plans for last year’s attacks. “If I were in the Justice Department, I’d be sitting on pins and needles right now.”
Ashcroft said one source of information on the planned assault was “a senior al-Qaida operative” who said al-Qaida cells had been established in four south Asian countries in order to conduct car bomb and other attacks on U.S. facilities. Ashcroft said the cells have been accumulating explosives since the beginning of the year to prepare for the attacks.
Ashcroft also said that U.S. intelligence has received information that individuals in the Middle East are preparing suicide attacks against U.S. interests.
While the targets of the attacks were not known, Ashcroft said the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that the most likely targets would be the transportation and energy sectors and symbols of American strength, such as military bases, U.S. embassies and national monuments.
As a precaution, the State Department also announced it was temporarily closing about two dozen U.S. embassies and consulates, including facilities in Indonesia, Bahrain, Vietnam, Pakistan, Malaysia, Cambodia, Malawi, Tajikistan and United Arab Emirates.
Even before Ashcroft and Ridge made their announcement, Vice President Dick Cheney left the White House for a secure, undisclosed location.
Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Congress would work as planned on Wednesday.
“We can’t be intimidated by threats into not doing our doing work, they would have won if we do that,” Lott said.
Ashcroft also said that federal authorities are concerned that lower-level al-Qaida operatives may view the Sept. 11 anniversary “as a suitable time to lash out in even small strikes to demonstrate their worldwide presence and resolve.”
“Accordingly, widely dispersed, unsophisticated strikes are possible,” he said.
After the Bush administration faced criticism for issuing vague terrorist warnings without providing specifics, Ridge established in March a five-tiered, color-coded alert system to spell out levels of potential terrorist threats.
The nation had been on ”elevated” or code yellow alert in the middle of the spectrum since the system was implemented. The highest level is red and the lowest green.
The orange level requires coordinating specific government security efforts with armed forces and law enforcement agencies, stepping up precautions at public events, preparing to shift government workers to alternative sites and restricting access or shutting down government facilities and buildings.
Ridge also said government buildings on the U.S. mainland and overseas will have stepped up security, and that every available air marshal would be used for airplane security. The defense department, meanwhile, moved missiles out of storage and into secret, anti-aircraft firing installations around Washington for possible use. .
Kushner, the terrorism expert, warned that Americans may become “alert-weary.”
“If you ratchet things up and nothing ever happens, you run the risk of complacency setting in,” he said.
GNS reporters Jon Frandsen, John Yaukey and Mike Madden dontributed to this story.
AP-NY-09-10-02 1815EDT
