WASHINGTON, Feb 8: The FBI issued a nationwide alert on Saturday seeking help from police and the public in finding a Pakistani man the agency said has entered the United States illegally after Sept 11, 2001.
The agency identified the suspect as 36-year old Mohammed Sher Mohammed Khan. A picture issued along with the alert shows a man with long hair, a beard and moustache.
The FBI said it had no specific information that Khan was a terrorist — his name and birth date might be fictitious — but that agents want to question him.
An FBI official said Khan was not the reason the terror alert level was raised but that he was “one of a number of factors.”
Last month the FBI had put out a similar alert to look for five men who, the agency said, had sneaked into the United States from Canada on Christmas Eve with faked passports and possible sinister intent. The information later proved to be fake and the FBI cancelled the alert.
On Friday evening, the US government also raised its terror threat level to “high risk” orange, warning of a growing possibility that the Al Qaeda network would launch an attack against the United States to coincide with Muslim holy days.
The government warned that “recent intelligence” suggests Al Qaeda is targetting “apartment buildings, hotels, and other soft or lightly secured targets” in the United States.
Changing the terror alert colour from “yellow” triggered tighter security at borders, airports and hotels. Officials also urged greater vigilance by all Americans.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said the government had received intelligence information, corroborated by multiple sources, that Osama bin Laden’s organization seeks to attack Americans at home or abroad during the time of the Haj pilgrimage.
But a prominent Islamic civil rights and advocacy group on Saturday expressed concern at linking the national alert to Haj.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Haj, is once-in-a-lifetime journey of spiritual purification, repentance and renewal, not an excuse for killing innocent people.
“The unnecessary linkage of Haj to terrorism merely serves to promote the growing perception in the Muslim world that the war on terrorism is in reality an attack on Islam. That perception could generate increased suspicion of and discrimination against ordinary Muslims. Haj has nothing to do with terrorism. To imply otherwise is an insult to the American Muslim community. Attorney General Ashcroft needs to clarify his position on this important issue,” said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.
The decision to raise the national terror alert was authorized by President George W. Bush after a meeting with the Homeland Security Council at the White House and was announced by Ashcroft, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and FBI Director Robert Mueller at a joint news conference.
