Wasn't this also the time of the orange alert when Tom Ridge (or was it John Ashcroft?) told us all to buy duct tape? Is it possible that this is what that heightened terrorism alert was about?
The duct tape announcement was made about Feb. 10, 2003.
As for the Swedish angle, it was reported in Feb 2003, but the stories said the contact was a year earlier. Also the Finns were contacted. They thought it was propaganda. What ever it was, it was weird.