Lindsey Lou
08-02-04, 12:18 PM
From JSONLINE.com
U.S. raises terror alert for 3 financial districts
Al-Qaida called a threat to attack specific sites
Journal Sentinel wire services
Posted: Aug. 1, 2004
Washington - The federal government raised the terror alert level Sunday to "orange" for the financial services sectors in New York City, Washington and Newark, N.J., citing the discovery of remarkably detailed intelligence showing that al-Qaida operatives have been plotting for years to blow up specific buildings with car or truck bombs.
Terror Threat
Photo/AP
Police officers armed with [arse]ault rifles guard the entrance to the Prudential Financial building in Newark, N.J., on Sunday after federal authorities warned it was a specific target of a possible terrorist attack. Financial sites in New York City and Washington, D.C., were also named as targets.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the newly acquired information pointed to five potential targets: the International Monetary Fund and World Bank headquarters in Washington; the New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp Center in New York; and the Prudential Financial building in Newark, N.J.
The intelligence shows that al-Qaida has been methodically casing those buildings, and perhaps others, since well before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington and has continued to do so since then, according to one senior U.S. intelligence official who briefed reporters on the alleged plot.
But there was no indication of when an attack might occur, although federal officials said it would likely be in the "near term."
Ridge said the threat potential remains through the Nov. 2 elections.
He said a confluence of chilling intelligence in recent days pointed to a car or truck bomb. "Car and truck bombs are one of the most difficult tasks we have in the war on terror," he said.
The surveillance, recounted in chilling detail in newly obtained documents, included the location of security desks and cameras in the buildings; traffic and pedestrian patterns surrounding them; employee and vehicle routines; the locations of nearby fire departments, police stations, libraries and schools; and what kinds of explosives would do the most damage to the various structures.
U.S. officials said the operatives noted that one of the buildings had three male security guards but that only one carried a weapon. "Getting up to the higher floors is not very difficult if you go there midweek, as I did," one of the operatives added.
Officials involved with the investigation in New Jersey said suspects were found with blueprints of the Prudential site and may have conducted a "test run" for an attack in recent days.
The heightened alert, announced by Ridge publicly at 2 p.m. EDT, included a level of detail unprecedented in previous warnings and marks the first time that Homeland Security officials have focused the government's color-coded threat system on specific geographic areas.
The five earlier orange alerts, which indicate a "high risk" of terrorist attack, have been applied to the nation as a whole, most recently on Dec. 31, 2003.
"The quality of this intelligence, based on multiple reporting streams in multiple locations, is rarely seen and it is alarming in both the amount and specificity of the information," Ridge said.
Cities beef up security
In response to Ridge's announcement, authorities in Washington, Newark and New York City scrambled to beef up security before government offices and financial markets opened this morning.
Ridge said it would be up to New York City officials to decide whether to move to the highest alert level, red.
In New York, which has remained under an "orange alert" since the Sept. 11 attacks and which will host the Republican National Convention later this month, police teams and anti-terrorism squads will bar trucks from certain New York bridges, establish checkpoints throughout Manhattan and double security around key office buildings, including the New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp buildings mentioned in the federal alert. In Newark, heavily armed police set up posts around the 21-story Prudential headquarters.
In Washington, Mayor Anthony Williams put the whole city on a code orange alert level, although the Homeland Security Department has not officially elevated the alert status for the entire city. The department's warning was tailored just to the city's financial sector.
District of Columbia police announced plans to stop and inspect cars and trucks around the IMF and World Bank buildings and other sensitive sites downtown, to activate additional surveillance cameras and to flood the areas with foot and car patrols.
Authorities also indicated that security would be tightened at other facilities in case secondary targets were selected, including the White House, U.S. Capitol, State Department and U.S. Federal Reserve Board.
Surveillance detailed
In one example of detailed surveillance cited by a senior administration intelligence official, operatives logged the flow of pedestrians outside one of the targeted buildings at midday in the middle of a week. "Fourteen persons p[arse] by every minute" on one side of the block, they concluded.
Other communications focused on security barricades, traffic patterns, the use of sewers as escape routes and the locations of nearby fire and police stations, schools and libraries, officials said. For one building, the potential attackers discussed how visitors must sign a book telling where they are going but "on Sunday there is no security. This is not the case on Saturday."
The operatives focused on structural features of the targets that might "prevent the buildings from toppling down" and discussed separate plans to hijack oil tankers but warned that some contain tracking devices.
They also intensively monitored the employees of the targeted buildings, noting the locations of employee offices in relation to parking garages and identifying local bars and restaurants where employees of the institutions could be met.
"It's as if someone long ago broke into your house and now you realize he's been monitoring everything you did for years," one senior U.S. official said.
A weekend of briefings
The alert comes a day before President Bush is likely to announce his own proposals for reorganizing the nation's intelligence agencies in response to recommendations by the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks.
A White House aide said Bush was first informed of the potential threat Friday morning aboard Air Force One by his traveling CIA briefer, during his daily intelligence briefing. At that time, the CIA still was trying to cull the data and Bush was told about "emerging information that might require us to take preventive action on certain specific targets," the aide said.
The CIA worked around the clock on the information for 72 hours before Ridge's announcement, officials said. Members of Bush's cabinet met about the matter on Saturday and again at 10 a.m. EDT Sunday for more than an hour.
Around noon, Bush authorized Ridge to make the announcement.
The Washington Post, [arse]ociated Press and New York Times contribued to this report
From the Aug. 2, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
U.S. raises terror alert for 3 financial districts
Al-Qaida called a threat to attack specific sites
Journal Sentinel wire services
Posted: Aug. 1, 2004
Washington - The federal government raised the terror alert level Sunday to "orange" for the financial services sectors in New York City, Washington and Newark, N.J., citing the discovery of remarkably detailed intelligence showing that al-Qaida operatives have been plotting for years to blow up specific buildings with car or truck bombs.
Terror Threat
Photo/AP
Police officers armed with [arse]ault rifles guard the entrance to the Prudential Financial building in Newark, N.J., on Sunday after federal authorities warned it was a specific target of a possible terrorist attack. Financial sites in New York City and Washington, D.C., were also named as targets.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the newly acquired information pointed to five potential targets: the International Monetary Fund and World Bank headquarters in Washington; the New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp Center in New York; and the Prudential Financial building in Newark, N.J.
The intelligence shows that al-Qaida has been methodically casing those buildings, and perhaps others, since well before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington and has continued to do so since then, according to one senior U.S. intelligence official who briefed reporters on the alleged plot.
But there was no indication of when an attack might occur, although federal officials said it would likely be in the "near term."
Ridge said the threat potential remains through the Nov. 2 elections.
He said a confluence of chilling intelligence in recent days pointed to a car or truck bomb. "Car and truck bombs are one of the most difficult tasks we have in the war on terror," he said.
The surveillance, recounted in chilling detail in newly obtained documents, included the location of security desks and cameras in the buildings; traffic and pedestrian patterns surrounding them; employee and vehicle routines; the locations of nearby fire departments, police stations, libraries and schools; and what kinds of explosives would do the most damage to the various structures.
U.S. officials said the operatives noted that one of the buildings had three male security guards but that only one carried a weapon. "Getting up to the higher floors is not very difficult if you go there midweek, as I did," one of the operatives added.
Officials involved with the investigation in New Jersey said suspects were found with blueprints of the Prudential site and may have conducted a "test run" for an attack in recent days.
The heightened alert, announced by Ridge publicly at 2 p.m. EDT, included a level of detail unprecedented in previous warnings and marks the first time that Homeland Security officials have focused the government's color-coded threat system on specific geographic areas.
The five earlier orange alerts, which indicate a "high risk" of terrorist attack, have been applied to the nation as a whole, most recently on Dec. 31, 2003.
"The quality of this intelligence, based on multiple reporting streams in multiple locations, is rarely seen and it is alarming in both the amount and specificity of the information," Ridge said.
Cities beef up security
In response to Ridge's announcement, authorities in Washington, Newark and New York City scrambled to beef up security before government offices and financial markets opened this morning.
Ridge said it would be up to New York City officials to decide whether to move to the highest alert level, red.
In New York, which has remained under an "orange alert" since the Sept. 11 attacks and which will host the Republican National Convention later this month, police teams and anti-terrorism squads will bar trucks from certain New York bridges, establish checkpoints throughout Manhattan and double security around key office buildings, including the New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp buildings mentioned in the federal alert. In Newark, heavily armed police set up posts around the 21-story Prudential headquarters.
In Washington, Mayor Anthony Williams put the whole city on a code orange alert level, although the Homeland Security Department has not officially elevated the alert status for the entire city. The department's warning was tailored just to the city's financial sector.
District of Columbia police announced plans to stop and inspect cars and trucks around the IMF and World Bank buildings and other sensitive sites downtown, to activate additional surveillance cameras and to flood the areas with foot and car patrols.
Authorities also indicated that security would be tightened at other facilities in case secondary targets were selected, including the White House, U.S. Capitol, State Department and U.S. Federal Reserve Board.
Surveillance detailed
In one example of detailed surveillance cited by a senior administration intelligence official, operatives logged the flow of pedestrians outside one of the targeted buildings at midday in the middle of a week. "Fourteen persons p[arse] by every minute" on one side of the block, they concluded.
Other communications focused on security barricades, traffic patterns, the use of sewers as escape routes and the locations of nearby fire and police stations, schools and libraries, officials said. For one building, the potential attackers discussed how visitors must sign a book telling where they are going but "on Sunday there is no security. This is not the case on Saturday."
The operatives focused on structural features of the targets that might "prevent the buildings from toppling down" and discussed separate plans to hijack oil tankers but warned that some contain tracking devices.
They also intensively monitored the employees of the targeted buildings, noting the locations of employee offices in relation to parking garages and identifying local bars and restaurants where employees of the institutions could be met.
"It's as if someone long ago broke into your house and now you realize he's been monitoring everything you did for years," one senior U.S. official said.
A weekend of briefings
The alert comes a day before President Bush is likely to announce his own proposals for reorganizing the nation's intelligence agencies in response to recommendations by the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks.
A White House aide said Bush was first informed of the potential threat Friday morning aboard Air Force One by his traveling CIA briefer, during his daily intelligence briefing. At that time, the CIA still was trying to cull the data and Bush was told about "emerging information that might require us to take preventive action on certain specific targets," the aide said.
The CIA worked around the clock on the information for 72 hours before Ridge's announcement, officials said. Members of Bush's cabinet met about the matter on Saturday and again at 10 a.m. EDT Sunday for more than an hour.
Around noon, Bush authorized Ridge to make the announcement.
The Washington Post, [arse]ociated Press and New York Times contribued to this report
From the Aug. 2, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel