Police1.com Critical Alert - Domestic Terrorism
No immediate plan to raise nation’s threat level, officials say
WASHINGTON (CNN) --The Department of Homeland Security is warning that terrorists might be plotting suicide airliner hijackings this summer, with possible targets including sites in the United States and other countries.
“As of mid-June, Islamic extremists may have been planning suicide hijackings to be executed by the end of summer 2003,” according to a document CNN obtained Tuesday.
“Attack venues may include the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia or the East Coast of the United States due to the relatively high concentration of government, military and economic targets,” the advisory said.
Britain, Italy and Australia are U.S. allies in the war in Iraq.
Department of Homeland Security officials said that they had no immediate plan to raise the nation’s threat level but added that the aviation sector has been encouraged to review security practices and implement random measures.
The one-page warning was sent to U.S. airlines Saturday. It comes nearly two years after terrorist attacks on New York and Washington shocked the world. The hijackings of four jets on September 11, 2001, resulted in the deaths of more than 3,000 people.
According to the advisory, possible targets could include national symbols, economic targets and venues that would produce many casualties.
“The plan may involve the use of five-man teams, each of which would attempt to seize control of a commercial aircraft either shortly after takeoff or shortly before landing at a chosen airport,” the advisory said.
The warning also voiced skepticism, saying some of the intelligence raises “questions about the viability of the plot.”
Department of Homeland Security sources said the credibility of the information is under evaluation. One government official termed it “dubious.”
Intelligence leading to the advisory was developed in the past several weeks and is based partially on information from interrogating high-level al Qaeda detainees, a senior intelligence official said.
The Department of Homeland Security warning also said the possible hijackers might try to use everyday travel items, such as cameras, that have been modified into weapons.
“The hijackers may try to calm passengers and make them believe they are on a hostage, not suicide, mission,” it said.
In doing so, one official said, potential hijackers might be hoping to reduce the likelihood that passengers would take action, such as those who were aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11. The plane went down in a field in rural Pennsylvania after a struggle between passengers and hijackers.
But that possibility, the advisory said, “seems unrealistic given the widely publicized actions of passengers on United Airlines Flight 93.”
The advisory also said terrorists might plan to identify flights that pass through the United States or the other target countries, so that the hijackers would not need visas for those countries.
Although the warning lays out specifics of a possible plot, it also said, “No equipment or operatives are known to have been deployed to conduct the operations.”
Officials deny air marshal cuts:
News of the warning surfaced as a report said Wednesday that a tight budget has prompted certain cutbacks in the federal air marshal program.
But federal officials denied the report in The Washington Post, which cited the cost of putting up the marshals in hotels overnight as a reason some security missions on vulnerable flights have been canceled.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesman told CNN a directive sent out last weekend calls on marshals to address the current threat to aviation security and to expand their mission as need be.
The official said that “there’s no slowdown, cutting, stoppage” in the strategy of placing armed, plainclothes law enforcement officers on certain flights.
The official said the newspaper was incorrect in saying some high-risk flights are no longer being covered.
Worldwide caution reissued:
Meanwhile, the State Department on Tuesday reissued a worldwide caution until January 26 for Americans living abroad. The alert reminds U.S. citizens of possible terrorist acts. It cites tensions from the Iraq war as a possible reason that terrorists and others might strike.
“Terrorist actions may include, but are not limited to, suicide operations, hijackings, bombings or kidnappings,” the caution said, adding, “These may also involve commercial aircraft.”
Other potential modes of attack include conventional weapons such as explosives and nonconventional weapons such as chemical and biological agents, the State Department said.
The department also reminded Americans that terrorists “do not distinguish between official and civilian targets,” which might include places such as restaurants, houses of worship, schools, hotels and beaches.
Such worldwide cautions are issued periodically.
Last week, a congressional report stated that U.S. intelligence agencies, including the FBI and CIA, “missed opportunities” to disrupt terrorism before September 11. (Full story)
According to the report, senior military officials were poised to attack Osama bin Laden before September 11 but lacked the intelligence data they needed to execute their plans.
The report also questions Saudi Arabia’s cooperation in earlier terror probes and examines its link to the hijackers. (Saudi official, Bush meet on report)
The roughly 800-page report did not point to any single clue that could have thwarted the plot but said that “various threads and pieces of information” were either overlooked or not put together.
Source: Dept. of Homeland Security
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