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WASHINGTON — The federal government will lower the terror alert status for financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington, The Associated Press learned Wednesday. The reduction from orange to yellow, the midpoint on the government's five-level terror warning system, comes three months after the alert was raised amid concerns the institutions could be al-Qaida targets. Yellow is "elevated," while orange is considered a "high" threat of attack. Two officials at the Homeland Security Department and aides to three members of Congress told the AP the alert level would be lowered. They all spoke on condition of anonymity because...

When the Bush administration recently made public a terrorism threat based on computer discs seized from an al-Qaida operative, skeptics suggested the president was timing terror alerts to bolster his campaign for re-election. After all, the operative whose capture led to the release of information was captured 20 days before President Bush's press conference. Most of the information received was from years ago. Skeptics recalled that White House strategist Karl Rove said in a January 2002 speech to the Republican National Committee that national security could be a winning issue for the party. News reports told of a strategy for...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 - Al Qaeda operatives updated surveillance conducted at five financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington as recently as this spring, according to a senior White House official who said on Thursday that the authorities still had no direct evidence of an active terror plot. Until Thursday, officials had said that the surveillance, which was carried out primarily in 2000 and 2001, had been updated no later than January. But additional analysis of computer records seized in Pakistan showed that they were updated in the spring, the White House official said. The discovery of the...

Analysts say it's wrong to think that old intelligence is irrelevant because Al-Qaeda works patiently within a long timeframe IS THE threat real? Or is the heightened anti-terrorist alert in the United States and Britain an over-reaction to outdated information? The decision of both countries to take increased, visible security measures is absolutely right, says the Aegis Intelligence Report. This is because of Washington's legal obligation to warn the public and London's need to provide public reassurance, it points out. Last week, the US raised its security alert to the second-highest level - Code Orange - in the financial services...

Brown's photo 'on al-Qaida disks' Seized computers included chancellor's image among information on potential US attacks David Teather in New York and Patrick Barkham Monday August 9, 2004 The Guardian Details emerged yesterday of potential terrorist targets found on captured al-Qaida computers, including a downloaded picture of Gordon Brown, and possible plans to use helicopters to attack New York. Information gleaned from the three laptops and 51 computer disks seized in Pakistan led to the specific warnings issued last week about possible attacks on five financial institutions in the US. US officials have hailed as a breakthrough the arrests and...

The first thing to notice about the elevated orange terror alert is that it is confined to Democratic stronghold cities and states. The next is to realize that no battleground states will be subjected to formal elevated alerts, lest the security interruptions sour the swing voters residing therein. Terror alerts are mini-"October surprises" for this administration, ready to be employed anytime President Bush wants to move the Kerry-Edwards campaign off the front page for a few days. The ''cry wolf'' factor is high. Tom Ridge's claim that his Homeland Security Department ''doesn't do politics" rings hollow, given his political background...

Despite claims that the recent terror alert effecting Washington and New York was released for political purposes, new information reveals chilling details of al-Qaeda’s plans to attack financial and political targets in the U.S. On July 24 Pakistani authorities stormed the house of an al-Qaeda leader and captured three laptop computers and 51 data-rich discs. TIME reports that “stored on the computers were 500 photographs of potential targets inside the U.S., minutely detailed analyses of the vulnerabilities to a terrorist attack of several of them and communications among some of the most wanted terrorists in the world.” A top Homeland...

The New York Times sure lived up to its motto, "All the News That's Fit to Print," with its broad coverage last week of the terrorist threats to the Big Apple. One news item, however, was apparently not fit for readers' eyes: The arrival of First Lady Laura Bush and her daughters at one of the targeted buildings. Indeed, on Tuesday alone, the Times devoted at least half a dozen articles to the terror alert, totaling more than 5,000 words — and not a one mentioned the morale-boosting appearance of President Bush's entire family at the Citigroup Center in Midtown....

A DROP in so-called 'chatter' among suspected terrorists is raising concern among United States counter-terrorism officials, who noticed a similar fall in intercepted communications prior to the Sept 11 terror attacks. US government sources told CNN that security experts are still trying to fathom the reason for the troubling ebb in recent days. While there have been several similar quiet episodes in the past, the 'chatter' continued as before even after the mid-July arrest of key Al-Qaeda suspect Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan by Pakistani security forces, which was announced last week. The fall-off in chatter comes at a sensitive time...

LONDON (Reuters) - The revelation that a mole within al Qaeda was exposed after Washington launched its "orange alert" this month has shocked security experts, who say the outing of the source may have set back the war on terror. Reuters learned from Pakistani intelligence sources on Friday that computer expert Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, arrested secretly in July, was working under cover to help the authorities track down al Qaeda militants in Britain and the United States when his name appeared in U.S. newspapers. "After his capture he admitted being an al Qaeda member and agreed to send e-mails...

It had been a pretty lazy vacation, kicking around in Maryland, a state whose pre-Alan Keyes claim to fame was as the home of another great Republican, Spiro T. Agnew. So, having had our fill of crab cakes and miniature golf in Ocean City, The Boyfriend and I decided to head to Washington for a tour of the nation's capital. We were hoping for some cultural and intellectual stimulation of the kind you can mention to make yourself sound like an inspiration-seeking traveler rather than a boardwalk french-fry-eating tourist. Sunday morning, planning nothing more adventurous than trying to navigate a...

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) on Saturday warned Americans this week's terrorism alert was another sign the country was still not safe but said he was taking steps to prevent future attacks. Alert levels were raised earlier this week for specific locations in New York City, Washington and New Jersey after a top-level review of information that al Qaeda may be plotting to attack financial institutions including the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites), the International Monetary Fund (news - web sites) and World Bank (news - web sites). "We're doing everything we...

Al-Qaida suspect was secretly cooperating with counterrorist sting ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The al-Qaida suspect named by U.S. officials as the source of information that led to this week’s terrorist alerts was working undercover, Pakistani intelligence sources said Friday, putting an end to the sting operation and forcing Pakistan to hide the man in a secret location. advertisement Under pressure to justify the alerts in three Northeastern cities, U.S. officials confirmed a report by The New York Times that the man, Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, was the source of the intelligence that led to the decision. A Pakistani intelligence source told...

PARIS, Aug. 5 - Britain aside, the response in Europe to the latest announcement of terror threats in the United States has ranged from official calm to unofficial cynicism. Since the Bush administration raised the terror alert to orange for five financial targets in and around New York and Washington, European governments have left their risk assessments unchanged. ... In a measure of how little the latest alerts raised concern in Europe, the European Union's counterterrorism director, Gijs de Vries, remained on vacation.

Albany Mosque Leaders Arrested On Terror Charges AUGUST 05TH, 2004 Two mosque leaders accused of agreeing to help an undercover informant smuggle a shoulder-fired missile to terrorists were arrested in an Albany Thursday. Meanwhile, the FBI says it is keeping a close watch on suspected terrorists in and around New York City. excerpt.... In New York City, several people with links to the terror groups Al Qaeda, Ansar al Islam and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad are under surveillance in New York City, an FBI spokesperson says. The FBI says there is no evidence that the suspects it is monitoring have...

August 6, 2004 -- LONDON — An alleged al Qaeda operative under arrest in Britain is suspected of writing the surveillance documents that sparked terror alerts in the United States this week, an official said yesterday. The documents, about five buildings housing U.S. financial institutions, were found on the computers of two accused members of Osama bin Laden's terror network arrested in Pakistan last month. The computers also held images of London's Heathrow Airport, Pakistani intelligence officials said. That information was passed to British officials. The revelations link two major sweeps against suspected al Qaeda networks in Pakistan and Britain...

The Threat Is Real Investor's Business Daily Terror: To listen to the critics, you'd think the war in Iraq is all we have to worry about. It's not. Iraq is part of a global war on terror -- a war that's all too real. We've listened patiently, along with the rest of America, as President Bush's opponents try to redefine the war on terror as simply a war on Iraq -- one that was, from the very beginning, a tragic mistake. But the war on Iraq wasn't a mistake. It has been, in fact, a success. And it will have...

This is a joint FBI and DHS Information Bulletin. FBI and DHS intend to update this Information Bulletin should they receive additional relevant information, including information provided to them by the user community. Based on this notification, no change to the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) level is anticipated; the current HSAS national threat level is YELLOW-ELEVATED. The current threat level for the financial services sectors in New York City, Northern New Jersey and Washington, DC is ORANGE-HIGH. FBI and DHS encourage recipients of this Information Bulletin to report information concerning suspicious or criminal activity to their local FBI Joint...

Scouring some of the links to al-Qaeda websites over the last week, some of you may recall that the date August 5 came up repeatedly in the intercepts of the "chatter" that was made public. It looks like we made it past that date. The other "hard" date that came up from the most recent arrests was "early September." We'll see if they were blowing smoke, if we foiled them, or if there is something else out there.

A complete reversal by the evil New York Times. Two days ago the Times, in full treasonous mode, was trying to make the current terror alert seem like a false alarm put out by the Bush administration in order to distract people from—from what? From Kerry’s tremendous “bounce” coming off the Democratic convention? The Times’ basis for this treasonous charge of treason was that the recently discovered Al Qaeda surveillance of major building that was the basis for the alarm had taken place three years ago, and was therefore “old” information. Now the Times is admitting that Al Qaeda scouts...