Steve Quayle News Alerts

June 30, 2002

The Federal Bureau of Investigation sent a private alert to state and local law enforcement agencies last week, warning that there could be some sort of terrorist attack over the Fourth of July holiday, according to a newspaper report Sunday.

The government has issued only one public warning all year, but 18 others have been sent to thousands of police agencies and have quickly been passed along in the media.

THE ALERT, not intended to be made public, was based on reports assembled from a number of sources, including foreign intelligence agencies and captured al-Qaida operatives, The New York Times reported. But senior government officials quoted by the Times say the threat was considered too vague to justify a public warning.

“The lack of specificity increases the concern and anxiety that is there,” said a senior government official, according to the paper.

The government has issued only one public warning all year, but 18 others have been sent to thousands of police agencies and have quickly been passed along in the media. It appears that the government is now attempting to limit the number of alerts, worrying about what one official calls “threat fatigue” — people tuning out, thinking there’s nothing they can do anyway.

WAR ON TERROR ABROAD
Though officials are unsure about possible terror attacks in America, the war on terror abroad is proceeding as planned, Bush national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“It is going to take time but this is a war that has been prosecuted extremely successfully,” Rice said Sunday, citing the administration’s often touted triumph over the Taliban in Afghanistan and the routing of many al-Qaida forces from that country.

Defending the administration against critics who have said the war is losing its focus, Rice said the president has united the country and the world through the war on terror.

“The Congress understands this is a long war, that our best defense is a good offense,” said Rice. “I do not believe there is a breakdown in support for the war.”

TIGHT SECURITY FOR THE 4TH
With the terror alert and a general security consciousness sweeping the country, tighter security is expected at Independence Day celebrations.

The FBI has ordered its field offices to keep watch over holiday events because of the danger that terrorists might strike.

With more than 1 million people expected in Philadelphia, authorities will be on high alert, guarding such historic landmarks as Independence Hall. More than 500,000 people are expected in Boston, where access to events will be restricted and bags and coolers will be searched.

In the nation’s capital, a double fence will be up around the Mall and the Capitol grounds, with checkpoints for searching people and their bags.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
In New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has lifted a fireworks ban put in place after Sept. 11 for a show called “A Time for Heroes.” A lineup of celebrities will narrate, and the event will culminate in a barrage of 20,000 pyrotechnic shells fired from barges in the East River.

“Given what is going on in the world, this will be a very special year for our fireworks, because the true meaning of the celebration will resonate more with people,” said Robin Hall, producer of the New York City show. “There is a surge of real patriotism in America, heroism has been redefined for many of us and liberty and freedom have a new immediacy.”

REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS
Missouri’s Fair St. Louis booked country music star Lee Greenwood just a few weeks after Sept. 11 to sing “God Bless the U.S.A.”

Washington, San Francisco and Chicago will remember the victims and the heroes of Sept. 11 with a fireworks salute called The American Tribute.

“There will be a silent sky, and then a solitary spectacular burst of red, followed once the sky has cleared by a solitary spectacular burst of white, followed by a solitary spectacular burst of blue,” said Jim Van Eerden, who came up with the idea with his family and wrote about it in a letter to President Bush. The tribute is now planned as part of the Capitol’s celebration and dozens of other events across the country.

While many fireworks displays will be more spectacular, parades are expected to be more somber.

In Washington, widows of generals killed on Sept. 11 at the Pentagon will be in the reviewing stands, and Pentagon police will be parade marshals. “It’s going to be powerful this year,” said producer Pat Wolverton.

ATTA IN SPAIN
Overseas, Spanish police now believe suspected Sept. 11 suicide pilot Mohamed Atta met in Spain with other key leaders of the attack on the World Trade Center eight weeks before the hijackers flew U.S. airliners into the buildings, a Spanish newspaper said Sunday.

Atta met in or near the northeastern city of Tarragona on July 10 with Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni who’s now the subject of a worldwide manhunt, and Marwan al-Shehhi, a cousin of Atta with whom he took flight lessons in Florida, El Pais said.

El Pais said it had gained access to a confidential 700-page report in which Spanish police detailed their probe of Sept. 11 preparations in Spain and reconstructed the movements of Atta and other suspects in the terrorist attacks.

European officials who have investigated the presence of al-Qaida members on the continent have concluded that Spain and Germany were used as staging grounds. Until now police have said they believed Atta met with unidentified Islamic extremists during the visit. El Pais said they have now concluded Atta met with Bin al-Shibh, al-Shehhi and three other men whose names were not given.

The Spanish report has been turned over to the FBI, the newspaper said. National Police and Interior Ministry officials were not available for comment Sunday.

U.S. authorities believe Atta, an Egyptian, was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which struck the north tower of the World Trade Center, and that Al-Shehhi, of the United Arab Emirates, was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which struck the south tower 17 minutes later.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/773054.asp