Posted on 05/28/2004 2:06:34 PM PDT by FairOpinion
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI has received more than 2,000 tips from the public in the 24 hours after a news conference asking for help in locating seven people Attorney General John Ashcroft called al Qaeda operatives.
"Many thanks for your help on locating those pictured below," the FBI Web site said Thursday. "Over 2,000 tips were sent by mid-afternoon today on tips.fbi.gov alone. Please keep them coming."
Officials could not provide the number of tips that came in phone calls.
Calls to numbers provided on the "Be on the Look Out" Web pages are being fielded by the Counterterrorism Watch office. Additional calls are being received by FBI field offices, a bureau official said.
"We consider the response promising and encouraging," said an FBI spokeswoman.
On Wednesday, the FBI told its 18,000 state and local law enforcement partners to be especially vigilant that al Qaeda may change its tactics to carry out a new attack in the United States.
The FBI weekly bulletin came on the heels of a stern warning from Ashcroft that terrorists intend to attack the homeland in coming months.
"Credible intelligence from multiple sources indicates that al Qaeda plans to attempt an attack on the United States in the next few months," Ashcroft said. "This disturbing intelligence indicates al Qaeda's specific intention to hit the United States hard."
But the intelligence -- gleaned from various U.S. intelligence agencies -- does not point to a specific attack plan, U.S. officials said.
According to the FBI bulletin, public statements by al Qaeda leaders suggest that plans for a U.S. attack are nearly complete, and that any of several upcoming high-profile events -- such as the G8 Summit in Sea Island, Georgia, the national political conventions this summer in Boston and New York, and the November presidential election -- were possible targets.
(Excerpt) Read more at katc.com ...
So why would you post an article like this after just accusing the FBI of not wanting tips? I'm confused. (Not exactly new territory for me, but I digress...)
Both can be true and they are.
Teh FBI got a lot of tips, but apparently they ignored some, or didn't you see this:
2 suspected al-Qaeda agents dropped in for meal, says Denny's manager in Avon
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1144022/posts
Samuel Mac, manager of the Denny's in Avon, isn't happy with the response he got from the FBI when he reported that two of them ate at his restaurant Wednesday.
When he called the FBI in Washington, D.C., Mac said the man who answered the telephone said he had to call the Denver office and declined to take down any of the information.
When he called the Denver office, he was shuttled to voice mail because the agents were busy, Mac said. It was five hours before a seemingly uninterested agent called back.
Mac said two men - he subsequently identified them from their photographs as Adnan G. El Shukrijumah and Abderraouf Jdey - came into Denny's, which is just off Interstate 70, about 8 p.m.
When the FBI agent called him back, she took a few notes and said she would pass the information along to the field agents, according to Mac.
Kelso said the Denver FBI office has received at least a dozen calls about the pictures. The calls are all taken seriously and "we follow up on every lead," she said.
But she said the FBI has no reason to believe any of the seven are in Colorado or traveling through.
I did see it. And I couldn't understand your comment, given that his call was returned despite the apathy or whatever from one or two agents.
#5 looks like someone you'd see on a college campus as a member of the druggy fraternity.
Can't wait to hear what John Walsh will have to say about this. He surely will have these fugitives quaking in their sandals...... </sarcasm
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