[Media-watch] US Officials defend terror warning - NYTimes - 3/8/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/03/politics/03CND-TERROR.html

August 3, 2004
U.S. Officials Defend Terror Warning
By BRIAN KNOWLTON
International Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 - American officials defended today their stark warning
of possible terror attacks on five East Coast financial institutions, saying
that even though militants might have conducted much of their surveillance
some years ago, the threat was no less real.

"I don't want anyone to disabuse themselves of the seriousness of this
information simply because there are some reports that much of it is dated,
it might be two or three years old," Tom Ridge, secretary of homeland
security, told reporters in New York today. "This is a resilient
organization that does its homework," he said of Al Qaeda.

While there was "no evidence of recent surveillance," Mr. Ridge said,
terrorists have amassed "volumes of information" and have updated their
data. "When you see this kind of detailed planning, you have to take
preemptive action."

Nonetheless, the reports that the terrorist surveillance of five
financial-sector buildings occurred largely in past years raised questions.

Foremost was the question of whether the government, thanks to information
seized from terror suspects in Pakistan, had uncovered active attack plans
or less specific preparations for a plot that might never have been fully
conceived.

That raised the question of whether the administration overreacted in
issuing its dire-sounding warning on Sunday, when briefers were vague about
the freshness of the information even while acknowledging that some of it
predated the Sept. 11 attacks.

Another was whether the security measures now being put in place - which are
extremely costly, and have already caused some economic disruption in the
target areas of New York, Washington and Newark - might be rolled back
anytime soon. The timing of doing so will involve delicate considerations.

With trucks being diverted from lower Manhattan, and roads blocked or
vehicles being stopped for random checks in large sections of Washington -
around the World Bank and International Monetary Fund buildings just west of
the White House, and in a several-block area surrounding the Capitol - some
damaging economic impact seemed increasingly unavoidable.

Some Washington officials have complained that security measures on Capitol
Hill were excessive, and could discourage tourism.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams, eager to avoid the calamitous drop in tourism
that followed the Sept. 11 attacks went out of his way to reassure residents
and visitors. He gave interviews on Monday seated at Kinkeads, a restaurant
on Pennsylvania Avenue near the World Bank, saying Washington is a "safe
city."

Although American officials have warned that terrorists appear particularly
intent on attacking United States targets in this election year, Mr. Ridge
said today that people should not assume the threat will recede after the
Nov. 2 election. "When they're ready to move, they'll move," he said of Al
Qaeda.

Maintaining heightened security is costly, in overtime pay to police and
other security personnel, in added equipment and in lost business.

Mayor Williams said that Washington might soon need federal help if it is to
sustain the heightened levels of security. After the Sept. 11 attacks,
police officers were diverted from some neighborhoods, something Mr.
Williams does not want to repeat.

New York has been at a high alert level since Sept. 11, and recently has
further bolstered security ahead of the Aug. 30 opening of the Republican
National Convention. Two of the reported targets - the New York Stock
Exchange and Citigroup - are there. Nearby in Newark, the Prudential
Financial building is another of the five targets.

Mr. Ridge insisted today that the raising of the terror alert for the three
areas was essential.

"We have made it much more difficult for the terrorists to achieve their
broad objectives," he said.

Mr. Ridge and other American officials took unusual measures to call
attention to the threat, which flowed from the seizure of a trove of
documents after the mid-July arrest of a Qaeda suspect in Pakistan, named by
American officials as Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan. Further information is
reported to have come from the arrest in Pakistan of a senior Qaeda
operative, identified as Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.

Mr. Ridge's department telephoned news executives shortly after noon Sunday
to alert them, in a conference call with Mr. Ridge and a deputy, to the
importance of the story. Their warnings were then repeated in a news
conference.

On Sunday, Mr. Ridge said little about the timing of the building
surveillance. He said the warnings were based on unusually specific
information about where Al Qaeda would like to attack. He added that there
was no information that indicates a specific time for these attacks beyond
the period leading up to our national elections. Mr. Ridge said it was fair
to deduce that the five buildings may be the subject of a particular plot.

In response to a question today about the presence of Al Qaeda militants in
the United States, he said, "I think around the country we just assume that
there are operatives here."

He said there was no information, however, to suggest that the five
corporate entities targeted had themselves been infiltrated. Separately, a
World Bank spokesman, Damian Sean Milverton, said there had been no
suggestion that Al Qaeda had penetrated the building here at all.