Replies

The United States has uncovered specific and credible intelligence that the al-Qaida terrorist network may again be targeting international flights into the United States, senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News on Friday.

The potential threats are similar to those that led U.S. security agencies to persuade British and French aviation officials to cancel a series of flights into the United States over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, the officials said.

Calling those threats urgent, the government raised the national terrorist threat assessment to “orange,” or high, on Dec. 21. It was restored to “yellow,” or elevated, on Jan. 9.

The new threat, which was first reported by NBC News’ Pete Williams, does not appear to be as imminent, and officials said there were no plans for now to cancel any flights or to raise the threat level. The terror alert has been raised to orange several times since the color-coded alert system was put in place in early 2002 after the Sept. 11 attacks; no attacks have taken place on U.S. soil during those periods.

Same destinations apparently targeted
At least 15 U.S.-bound flights were canceled during the holiday period after the alert level was raised to orange before Christmas.

Nearly all the flights involved were Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles International Airport and British Airways flights between London and Washington. Numerous other international flights were also delayed. U.S. officials said they never uncovered any specifics on the plans for attacks.

A senior U.S. official told NBC News on condition of anonymity at the time that “we are still not out of the weeds — we continue to be concerned.”

U.S. officials said Friday night that the same airports appeared to be targeted in the new threat. No other details were immediately available.

In addition to requiring airlines to carry marshals on selected flights, U.S. authorities this month began fingerprinting and photographing foreigners arriving at more than 100 airports.