Associated Press
The FBI’s warning of a possible terrorist attack as early as Tuesday was met largely with calm attentiveness by law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Attorney General John Ashcroft on Tuesday urged Americans to adopt "the highest state of alert" in the search for 17 men possibly linked to Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network and believed to have planned an attack against the United States or its people in Yemen.
The latest alert, listing names of possible terrorists and warning of an attack "on or around" Tuesday, did not specify possible targets.
The warning issued Monday identified the possible ringleader as Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei, a Yemeni citizen born in 1979 in Saudi Arabia. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said al-Rabeei is believed to have links to al-Qaida.
The nation’s police officers, already on high alert since the Sept. 11 attacks and subsequent federal warnings, wondered how much more cautious they could be.
"Ever since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, our officers have been on high alert, and we continue to remain so," said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Jason Lee.
"No specific location or time was given for this latest alert, so there’s not much more we can do. I mean, how much higher can we go? We’re already on the highest alert."
The FBI said Tuesday it based an unusually detailed public warning on information from interviews by U.S. officials with detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan. Three earlier alerts were vague as to the date of any potential attack.
The FBI published photos of al-Rabeei and 12 of the others on its Web site, www.fbi.gov. The FBI asked police to stop and detain any of those in the alert and said they should be considered extremely dangerous.
Officials acknowledged they did not know whether al-Rabeei was in the United States, and could not be sure even that he was alive. A hurried review of immigration records gave no indication he had ever been in the United States, a Justice Department official said.
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
