An Overreaction?
Not everyone thought John Ashcroft’s warning was justified
WEB EXCLUSIVE
Newsweek
Updated: 6:41 p.m. ET May 26, 2004May 26 - Even as Attorney General John Ashcroft warned on Wednesday that Al Qaeda planned “to hit the United States hard” in the next few months, U.S. intelligence officials were privately divided about whether the government had obtained any fresh information that justified such an extraordinary public announcement
Armed with what he called “disturbing” and “credible” intelligence from “multiple sources,” Ashcroft appeared with FBI Director Robert Mueller and urged the public to increase its vigilance over the next several months, when a number of events, including an upcoming G-8 summit in Georgia and the political conventions, might present inviting targets. The FBI also issued bulletins for seven Al Qaeda-linked suspects. One of them was Adam Yahiye Gadahn, (formerly Adam Pearlman), a 25-year-old former resident of Orange County, Calif. Gadahn converted to Islam and, according to Mueller, attended training camps in Afghanistan and associated with Abu Zubaydah, once one of Al Qaeda’s top leaders.

• Ashcroft: al Qaida planning attack
May 26: Attorney General John Ashcroft says U.S. intelligence believes it is highly likely that "al Qaida is planning to attack the U.S. in the next few months.

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• Ashcroft answers skeptics
May 26: John Ashcroft is asked whether he is worried about skeptics who say he is “scaring people” with continual terror announcements.

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• 7 terror suspects named
May 26: FBI Director Robert Mueller gives information about seven suspects the government believes might be planning terrorist attacks in the U.S.

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• Monitoring terror news
May 26: NBC’s David Gregory has the latest on the seven terrorist suspects and the White House’s reaction to the Ashcroft, Mueller news conference.

MSNBC TV


• Ashcroft, Mueller: Terror suspects
May 26: Listen to John Ashcroft's and Robert Mueller's entire statements during a news conference on seven terror suspects that could be involved in planning an attack in the U.S.

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In his briefing, Ashcroft cited no specific new information other than a claim that was sent to an Arabic newspaper in London immediately after the March 11 Madrid bombing. In it, a shadowy group asserted that a major attack against the United States was “90 percent ready.” But the authenticity of the group—and whether it really spoke for Al Qaeda—was questioned at the time by some U.S. officials.

Although the U.S. intelligence community says it has been concerned for some time about the potential implications for the United States of the Madrid bombings, some U.S. counterterrorism officials told NEWSWEEK they were aware of no sudden surge in “chatter”—intercepts of terrorists communications—or other indicators of a possible imminent attack. “We’re always getting new threat information, but I wouldn’t point to a steep spike in chatter” said one U.S. official. Another counterterrorism official added: “What we’re seeing is a lot like what we’ve seen before.”

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The new warning from Ashcroft in some ways underscored the difficulties U.S. counterterrorism officials face in attempting to make sense of murky and fragmentary bits of intelligence about terrorist threats and then determine how much to alert, if not alarm, the public. Notably, the Department of Homeland Security did not participate in today’s announcement at the J. Edgar Hoover building. There is also no talk of raising the official “threat level” from Yellow to Orange. One reason, officials say, is that the increased costs to law enforcement and others of an Orange alert simply “can’t be sustained” over an extended period of time, one official put it. In addition, officials say there is still some division within the U.S. intelligence community over whether the last jump to Orange in December was a legitimate response to a real ongoing terrorist plot—or yet another false alarm.

One senior law-enforcement official, while acknowledging the paucity of any fresh intelligence pointing to an imminent attack, said the public warning was still justified as a “proactive” effort to disrupt any ongoing attacks prior to the election. One element of that was the release of the fresh BOLOs—Be On the Look Out bulletins—for the seven Al Qaeda suspects. But six of them have been released before by the bureau, including one for Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a former Florida resident who Ashcroft said today has been known to have “scouted sites across America” for attacks and, before he disappeared several years ago, has tried to get back into the United States using different passports.

The only new suspect identified today was Gadahn, the former Californian, who according to an essay he apparently wrote in 1995 for a Web site, was once “obsessed with demonic Heavy Metal music” before converting to Islam. “Having been around Muslims in my formative years, I knew well that they were not the bloodthirsty, barbaric terrorists that the news media and the televangelists paint them to be,” he wrote.

© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.

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The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'.

-Larry Hardiman

An overreaction?

To those out there who feel the new terror warning is an overreaction or a ploy by Bush...

May you never see what we here in New York saw. May you never know the loss of someone you love simply because some terrorist monster got a bug up their a$$ to attack America as 3000 people did on 9/11.

How dare anyone to say that ANY terror warning is an overreaction. I pray to God that those who do never know what I felt on 9/11...not knowing if my sister who working in Tower 2 was dead or alive. May you never see the body parts my father saw when he went to Ground Zero to clean up them mess made by those sick terrorists. And may you never have to shed one tear at a memorial service as we all here in NY had to do...over & over again 3000 times.

That I live in a world with people who would dare question a possible terrorist attack after what happened on 9/11 makes me sick to my stomach.

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Be Alert: The world needs more Lerts

I understand that 9/11 was horrible and there is no denying that we need to be ready for another attack. But do we need to be paranoid? Does our day need to be ruined over the fear that "chatter" says that there may be an attack?

I will not be surprised if there is another attack, but i'm not going to sit on my couch watching TV and waiting for it to happen.

So many other country's around the world have been dealing with terrorism for a lot longer than we have and they have somehow managed to deal with it. Why when it happens to us do we start acting like we are the only people in the world?

All of this said, i have the greatest respect for all to the people who tragically lost their lives on 9/11, and all of soldiers giving their lives to defeat an invisible and un-catchable enemy.

that you weren't warned about?

Don't you get it? Such attacks are inevitable. Such is daily life in our era.

Can't hang? I suggest moving to Montana and turning off the telly. Then you'll only have to worry about the Ted Kaczynskis of the world.

Catz

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

As this nation draws nearer to national election time, we will get more non-specific terror alerts! Much of these alerts are political in nature as that they do not spell out specifics! Americans want to know where & when, not get some three year old information that doesn't say much! These so called terrorist may be just feeding this information to them. Otherwords just don't say that terrorist may have targets in Texas or New York, and give several possible targets, use our intellegence and get specifics! Everyone is noticing as the election in November nears we are getting more alerts. And many of them are for political usage. George Bush & company are about power, greed, and getting re-elected at all costs! America does not need a full time war president!