WASHINGTON, Feb 7: The State Department has warned Americans abroad of the threat of new terrorist attacks as Washington steps up efforts for a military offensive against Iraq.
Citing intelligence reports, the department said the terrorists were likely to use chemical or biological weapons against US citizens living outside the United States.
The worldwide alert came as US security officials told NBC News on Friday that they were considering raising their assessment of the threat of terrorist attacks to orange — its second-highest level — citing intelligence indications of plans for “a major attack as early as next week”.
US officials also have warned Saudi Arabia that pro-Al Qaeda elements may use next week’s Haj season for staging anti-American protest in the holy city of Makkah.
They said that the US intelligence agencies had picked up conversations indicating Al Qaeda wants to use religious fervour during the Haj season to motivate Muslims against America.
Saudi Arabia has already warned that it will not tolerate any demonstrations during the Haj and has boosted its security arrangements to protect more than two million people expected to come for pilgrimage.
“Our precautionary security measures for Haj this year are of the highest order,” says Interior Minister, Prince Nayef
The state department advised Americans abroad to “remain vigilant due to a heightened threat of terrorist actions that may target civilians.” It said some of the threat came from groups linked to Al Qaeda.
The worldwide caution, the department’s first since Nov 20, specifically warned of the possibility of “attacks by nonconventional weapons,” saying terrorists’ use of chemical or biological weapons “must be considered a growing threat.”
US intelligence officials in the Middle East are believed to have warned Washington that terrorists may have plans to strike US troops stationed in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa and in Kenya, where Al Qaeda bombed the US embassy five years ago.
The state department advisory also said terrorists were likely to go after “soft targets,” such as places of worship and schools. The warning echoed language used in recent reports the FBI has issued to local law enforcement officials reviewing recent Al Qaeda methods.
The threat assessment has been at the third of five levels — yellow, or “elevated” — since Sept 24, 2002.
The assessment was last at orange, or “high,” for two weeks beginning Sept 10, the day before the first anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington. US officials said at the time that two captured members of Al Qaeda terror network had told interrogators of specific plans to carry out new attacks.
Quoting Homeland Security Department NBC News reported on Friday that the level of concern was now at its highest since the Sept 11 attacks. Administration officials said they were reassessing the threat level “one day at a time” as the United States moved closer to taking military action against President Saddam Hussein, which critics contend would inflame anti-US sentiment among Muslims worldwide.
But Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed talk that new attacks could be tied specifically to action in Iraq.
NEW N-TREATY: The international treaties and arrangements meant to keep nuclear weapons from spreading to terrorists may not be working, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Friday.
Talking to reporters en route to Europe to meet other NATO defence ministers, Mr Rumsfeld pointed out that since the end of the cold war, the number of nuclear weapons states has increased to include India, Pakistan, and, possibly North Korea and Iran. “When you marry that with terrorist states that have relationships with terrorist networks you have the potential for very serious circumstance for the world,” he said.
During his recent visit to Washington Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri also had suggested expansion of the Nuclear Club of five members — US, Russia, China, Britain and France — to eight by including India, Pakistan and Israel to implement the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
“Frankly, as far as NPT is concerned, there are five countries in it. India and Pakistan have demonstrated their nuclear capacity. We are willing to be let in if you would let us in, and we would conform to all the requirements.
US and Pakistani officials in Washington told Dawn on Friday that Mr Kasuri also had discussed this suggestion when he met Mr Rumsfeld at the Pentagon last week. The US defence secretary, however, did not refer to Mr Kasuri’s proposal but called on “responsible” nations to craft a new set of political, economic and “if necessary, military steps” to prevent the weapons from falling into the wrong hands.
“I rank the problems we’re facing with the proliferation of these technologies, enormously lethal technologies, vastly more lethal than anything the world has known, to be a problem of the first order,” Mr Rumsfeld said.
He did not suggest how treaties like the NPT should be changed.
“I’m not advocating anything. What I am doing is acting as an interested observer of the world and opining that I think the world ought to take notice of,” he said.
The first step is to raise the issue on the world stage. “I think the beginning of right-minded behaviour of democratic states is information and knowledge and facts. And I think it is the job of leadership to bring those facts before people and begin to make them aware of exactly what it would be like living in a world like that,” he said.
The second step is sharing information and intelligence on proliferation problems with “interested nations.”
