Posted on 08/03/2004 9:03:34 AM PDT by Quick1
WASHINGTON - U.S. officials say the detailed surveillance photos and documents that prompted higher terror warnings dated from as far back as 2000 and 2001, and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Tuesday the government concluded "it was essential" to publicize it and raise the terror alert.
Speaking at a news conference in New York, Ridge said that because of the heightened security steps, "We have made it much more difficult for the terrorists to achieve their broad objectives. ... We will not become fortress America."
Officials had said earlier that it wasn't clear whether the individuals who amassed the information, principally on financial institutions in New York, Newark and Washington, D.C., are still in the country or plotting.
Top Bush administration officials said some of the surveillance was apparently updated as recently as January of this year. And they denied any allegations that the public release of the information now, and the raising of the terror alert, were politically motivated. They said the information was released now because it was just uncovered in Pakistan.
The surveillance actions taken by the plotters were "originally done between 2000 and 2001, but were updated — some were updated — as recently as January of this year," Fran Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show.
"And from what we know of al-Qaida's method ... they do them years in advance and then update them before they actually launch the attack," she said.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that once federal officials get such information, "they do have a responsibility not only to evaluate it, but to get it out."
But some Democrats have raised concerns that the timing of the release of the information had more to do with politics than with fears that terrorists were about to strike.
Townsend and other officials noted that the information — dating back to 2000 and 2001 — was just recently discovered in Pakistan. "We've only gotten the intelligence, I would say, in the last 72 hours," she said Tuesday.
U.S. officials have said that the trove of hundreds of photos, sketches and written documents that led to Sunday's warning about new risks of terror attacks came largely from a Pakistani computer engineer, Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, also known as Abu Talha, who was captured in mid-July in Pakistan.
Officials are now following investigative leads, as they try to learn more about possible plots against the apparent targets: The Citigroup Center building and the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) in New York, the International Monetary Fund (news - web sites) and World Bank (news - web sites) buildings in Washington and Prudential Financial Inc.'s headquarters in Newark, N.J.
At a news conference Monday, Townsend denied that political considerations affected the timing of the intelligence disclosures, which came the week after Democrats nominated John Kerry (news - web sites) as their presidential candidate. "It had nothing to do with the Democratic National Convention," she said.
On Monday, a Pakistani intelligence official said Khan, a computer and communications expert, had sent messages to suspected al-Qaida members using code words — a practice typical of the international jihadist organization that bedeviled U.S. efforts to unravel the Sept. 11, 2001, plot. But the Pakistani official refused to say if Khan was part of al-Qaida.
Khan's information has been merged with other pieces of intelligence, including information gleaned after Pakistan's arrest last month of a senior al-Qaida operative named Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.
E-mails that included plans for new attacks in Great Britain and the United States were found on the computer of the captured Ghailani, Pakistan's information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said Monday.
But it was Khan and the information found after his arrest that was mostly behind the decision to raise the government's terror alert for financial-services buildings in New York, Washington and northern New Jersey — to orange, or high alert.
The FBI (news - web sites) is analyzing the information about the surveillance of these five buildings, obtained after Khan's capture, to try to determine when it may have occurred, so that investigators can review building logs or videos during that same period, said one senior law enforcement official, speaking only on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation.
Investigators hope that logs or video might help identify some of the individuals involved, which would help agents understand the breadth of the terror plot.
The FBI is also trying to compare reports about the surveillance with previous intelligence reports that might have been considered innocuous or unconfirmed months ago, but might take on important new meaning in light of the latest information.
Officials don't yet know precisely when the detailed surveillance work took place.
A counterterrorism official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said authorities believe the surveillance was going on both before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, based on clues within the documents, including descriptions of security indicative of practices used before the suicide hijackings.
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Associated Press writer Ted Bridis contributed to this report.
The headline is written to imply that this is all data from 2000. What the article actually suggests is that the surveillance started in 2000 and has continued through at least January of this year. That would make it a current operation in my book.
The title is written to empower the Rats to rally around the Howard Dean comment concerning the "political" aspect of the information I.E. it was just released now to get terrorism back on the front page. Remember, the RATS think this is the big issue for the Republicans.
Read the article carefully. They have been working on this op since 2000, and have continued through early 2004. The 'rats will do their best to make this look like "old stuff" without bothering to mention that many of the terrorist attacks in the past occurred after years of careful study and planning.
This is a result of the Rat double cross. If the administration doesn't release the info and something happens at those sites the Rats would cry and stomp their feet that "Bush withheld information" and "Bush failed to react". In the mean time, they get to say "Bush using scare tactics".
Homeland Security: Connects the dots from 2000 plan to hit financial institutions and appropriately raises security.
Wash Post: Homeland Security Uses 4 Year Old Info!!!!
Me: "F&*^ing Liberals...."
Yep, they will take years planning an attack. They have a much longer view of things than our politicians do.
I heard this morning that some intel had been received in January of THIS year, and that this old information, recently obtained, was connected in some way with that. I guess that is what caused the concerns. Regardless, I'm glad they're taking these things seriously, and keeping a closer eye out on the areas mentioned.
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