- By Adam Entous and Donna Smith (Reuters) - The U.S. government
raised its terror alert to the second highest level on Sunday and warned
Americans there was a high risk militants might launch attacks around the
holidays in the United States that could be bigger than those of Sept.
11, 2001.
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- Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said threat indicators
are "perhaps greater now than at any point" since the 2001 attacks
and promised that all federal departments and agencies would increase their
defenses against what he called "al Qaeda's continued desire to carry
out attacks against our homeland."
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- The warning came despite White House assurances that
many of al Qaeda's operations had been disrupted and that the occupation
of Iraq was making the world safer.
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- Ridge said al Qaeda might try to use aircraft in new
attacks -- as Osama bin Laden's global network of militants did to strike
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon more than two years ago, killing
nearly 3,000 people.
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- U.S. officials attributed the warning to "credible
sources," and ordered the color-coded alert system raised to orange
-- denoting "a high risk" of terrorist attacks -- from yellow,
which the Department of Homeland Security defines as "a significant"
or "elevated" risk of terrorist attacks.
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- It is the fifth time the orange alert has been activated
since the system was instituted in March last year.
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- "The information we have indicates that extremists
abroad are anticipating near-term attacks that they believe will either
rival or exceed the attacks that occurred in New York and the Pentagon
and the fields of Pennsylvania," said Ridge, who met early on Sunday
with President Bush's homeland security advisers.
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- They recommended the change to Bush, who immediately
"concurred with the decision," a White House official said.
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- At a hastily arranged news conference, Ridge said security
would be beefed up at the nation's airports and more agents would be deployed
along its borders. Coast Guard air and sea patrols will also increase to
protect the nation's critical ports and shipping lanes.
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- "We will not broadcast our plans to the terrorists.
But extensive and considerable protections have been or soon will be in
place all across the country," Ridge said.
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- U.S. officials singled out New York and Washington as
possibly the highest-profile targets.
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- The new warning comes one week after the capture of Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein, which gave Bush a pre-election year boost in the
polls. Bush has portrayed the occupation of Iraq as a front in the war
on terrorism.
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- But Democrats complain the government has not done enough
to boost security in the United States. "Homeland security is not
nearly what it ought to be," Rep. Dick Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat
seeking his party's presidential nomination, told Fox News Sunday.
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- The alert announcement came amid the year-end holiday
travel rush. In the past, the administration has been wary of spooking
travelers and setting back the nation's economic recovery and Ridge sought
to reassure anxious Americans preparing for the holidays.
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- "If you've got travel plans, travel," he said.
David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said he thought
the announcement came too late to prompt a spate of cancellations.
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- Ridge's decision had an immediate effect across the nation.
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- In New York, which has been continuously on orange alert,
police patrols were being increased and deployed, the officials said, to
cover bridges, tunnels, landmarks and "signature buildings" such
as the New York Stock Exchange. "We're not letting our guard down,"
said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
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- Chicago said it had asked federal authorities to change
flight paths over downtown Chicago for the duration of the alert.
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- Experts have said the top alert -- red -- on the five-level
scale would be declared only if an attack on U.S. soil were imminent or
underway.
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- Ridge cited a "substantial increase in the volume
of threat related intelligence reports" suggesting the possibility
of attacks within the United States around the "holiday season and
beyond" -- referring to Christmas, the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah
and the New Year's Day.
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- Due to the raised threat level, the State Department
repeated a worldwide caution warning of a potential threat to Americans
overseas.
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- On Friday, al Jazeera television broadcast a purported
audio tape by bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, saying al Qaeda would
target Americans everywhere, including the United States. An audiotape
purportedly by bin Laden was broadcast on Saturday, but the CIA said it
appeared to be old.
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- The color-coded terror alert warning system has generally
been kept at "yellow" -- the middle of the scale.
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- Additional reporting by Donna Smith and Vicki Allen in
Washington, Chris Michaud in New York and Brad Dorfman in Chicago.
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- © Reuters 2003. All Rights Reserved.
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