U.S. Raises Terror Alert to 'High'

U.S. Raises Terror Alert to 'High'

NewsMax.com Wires
Saturday, Feb. 8, 2003

WASHINGTON – The United States raised its terror advisory level Friday from yellow, or "elevated," to orange, or "high."

Attorney General John Ashcroft said U.S. intelligence shows al-Qaeda might seek to strike "soft targets" such as apartment buildings or nightclubs at home or abroad.

"The nation's critical infrastructures" have been warned, said Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge at the same news conference.

President Bush established the Homeland Security Alert System in March 2002 after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The level has remained at yellow since that time, except for a brief period on the first anniversary of the terror attacks.

U.S. officials said the level of "chatter" had increased significantly among terror suspects overseas. The suspects are being monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies.

The State Department on Thursday warned U.S. citizens abroad for the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks of the potential for a terrorist strike on citizens and U.S. interests abroad involving chemical and biological weapons.

A worldwide caution said: "Terrorist actions may include, but are not limited to, suicide operations, assassinations or kidnappings. While conventional weapons such as explosive devices pose a more immediate threat in many areas overseas, terrorist use of non-conventional weapons, including chemical or biological agents, must be considered a growing threat."

That warning was issued one day after Secretary of State Colin Powell presented detailed evidence that Iraq was in further material breach of a U.N. resolution requiring the country to disarm, airing in public for the first time detailed evidence of the country's mobile biological weapons labs, research into unmanned aerial vehicles and the mounting of sprayers on Soviet-made MiG fighters.

The warning is to expire on May 4.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Al-Qaeda
Bush Administration
Middle East
Saddam Hussein/Iraq
War on Terrorism
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