Posted on 05/20/2003 11:38:00 AM PDT by Nexus
Just heard...
By Shaun Waterman
From the Washington Politics & Policy Desk
Published 5/20/2003 1:54 PM
WASHINGTON, May 20 (UPI) -- Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge cut short a session with lawmakers Tuesday to attend a hastily convened meeting with President Bush at the White House where officials said they would consider raising the nation's threat level, following warnings of more terror attacks against U.S. interests.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters the president's Homeland Security Council was meeting Tuesday morning. Earlier, he told NBC the meeting would decide whether to change the nation's terrorism threat alert status.
"That's a decision that gets made on a daily basis based on a careful review of the latest information," he said. "It's a day-to- day call."
The color-coded warning system has five levels. It is currently set at "yellow," the third-highest level, signifying the threat is "elevated." If it were raised, it would be "orange," or "high." It would be the fourth time the level has been raised to orange since the system was introduced last year.
Last week, terrorists thought linked to the al-Qaida network struck at Western and Jewish targets in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, killing dozens.
Over the weekend, the FBI issued an intelligence bulletin to local law enforcement agencies warning that further attacks against U.S. interests, perhaps in the United States itself, were possible.
FBI spokesman Bill Carter said, "The May 12 bombing in Saudi Arabia indicates that al-Qaida is still active. The U.S. intelligence community assesses that attacks overseas are likely, and attacks in the United States cannot be ruled out."
He added there was no specific intelligence threat of an attack in the United States.
Officials also announced the closure of the U.S. embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and its consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran, until at least next Sunday, because of what the U.S. State Department called "credible information that further terrorist attacks are being planned against unspecified targets," in the kingdom.
British authorities also announced the closure of their embassy.
One private sector counter-terrorism analyst who consults for U.S. government agencies told United Press International on condition of anonymity it was significant the two series of attacks in two different countries appeared to have been timed to coincide as closely as possible.
"That suggests there's still a global command structure in place, someone coordinating between the cells in different countries," the analyst said.
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(With reporting by Mike Kirkland at the Justice Department) Copyright © 2001-2003 United Press International<BR
Well, that's all that was really said. If you need more info, look hear
Senior U.S. officials say intelligence "chatter" suggests terrorists plotting major US attack
and here
Fears al-Qaeda plotting new attack in US
...for background info.
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