WASHINGTON, 5 December — The Bush administration on Monday issued its third terrorism alert in two months, calling for Americans to be “extra vigilant” during the month of Ramadan, and reminded law enforcement officials and the public not to let down their guard regarding terrorist attacks.
Without being specific, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said US intelligence officials recently received reports of an increased volume of credible evidence that another assault could be imminent.
“The information we have does not point to any specific target either in America or abroad, and it does not outline any specific type of attacks,” Ridge said at a White House press briefing. “However, our analysts who review this information believe the quantity and level of threats are above the norm, and have reached a threshold where we should once again place the public on general alert.”
“The further removed we get from Sept. 11, I think the natural tendency is to let down our guard. Unfortunately, we cannot do that: We are a nation at war,” Ridge said.
“Add your eyes and your ears to our efforts to find and stop those who want to do us harm.”
Ridge said the FBI was keeping 18,000 law-enforcement agencies on highest alert.
Monday’s warning increased concern about the civil liberties for Muslim and Arab Americans.
Alert not tied to nuclear concern
Meanwhile, Ridge yesterday, responding to a report Bin Laden may be closer than first thought to obtaining plans for a crude nuclear weapon, said information on such a device had been found in Afghanistan but had nothing to do with the latest alert against possible attacks on US targets.
Ridge said in television interviews that there was no information in the intelligence threat assessment against the United States that Bin Laden had, in fact, acquired or built a so-called “dirty bomb.”
The Washington Post said Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network may have made greater strides than previously thought toward getting the information to make a “dirty bomb,” a crude radiological weapon that would use conventional explosives.
The newspaper said the conclusion was made after interrogation of captured Al-Qaeda members and evidence gathered in the last month at Al-Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan by CIA officers and US special forces.
“We’re well aware they found some information relative to crude devices in some of the safe houses in Afghanistan,” Ridge told NBC’s “Today” program. “We’re also aware that information that was discovered in Afghanistan one could pick up in this country off the Internet.”
Ridge said in the interviews that the discovery had “absolutely nothing to do” with Monday’s warning of unspecified threats of possible new attacks against Americans at home and abroad.
The Post reported that a police source said authorities had received “nonspecific” information about a threat to the Washington, DC, area on Dec. 4 or sometime thereafter. The paper said police are on the lookout for suspicious vehicles that might contain a bomb.
Holding Arabs and Muslims without trial
Ridge’s announcement mirrored a Nov. 13 directive issued by President Bush allowing the military detention of any individual the president has “reason to be believe” is or was a member of Al-Qaeda or who took part in “international terrorism” directed at the United States or who knowingly harbored such criminals.
“That clearly contemplates holding people without trial,” said Harvard law professor Philip Heymann. “A person can be detained whether he is to be tired or not tried.”
Heymann, a former deputy US attorney general said the order covers 18 million foreign-born, non-US citizens living in this country, most of them legally.
This order has also posed an enormous problem for certain embassies, which are frustrated by the US administration’s refusal to release the names of those they have arrested.
Pakistani Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said she is continuing her efforts to get the names of Pakistanis detained by US authorities after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The Pakistani Embassy said 208 Pakistanis are being held on immigration charges. The embassy does not have their names, the locations where they are being held or the specific charges.
“We have been assured by the US authorities that the detainees would be treated in accordance with US law and that the government would fulfill its obligations under the Vienna Convention,” an embassy official said.
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations requires any governments that detain foreign citizens to inform them of their right to contact their embassies or consulates.
Lodhi also said the embassy will help deport Pakistani detainees who are not challenging their cases.
No embassies appear to have been granted access. “We learned last week that 11 Tunisians are being detained,” Hatim Attalah, Tunisia’s ambassador in Washington, said. “Most of them, if not all of them, are being held for visa and immigration violations, but until now, we haven’t heard of anyone being held for terrorism.”
As with the Pakistani embassy, Attalah said his embassy has received no information from US authorities. “We have put in an official request, but we have not yet been given the names of those being detained.”
“There is a rising concern overseas — as they are getting a lot of reports, especially in Saudi Arabia and Gulf states — that their citizens have been put in the spotlight here and that they are concerned about them. And they want to know why they are detained,” said Alaa Bayoumi, director of Arabic affairs at the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
“There is also a huge concern in the Muslim and Arab community here in the US that we are being profiled, and this is not just the immigrants, and those immigrant with visas, but also US citizens. We hear these arrests are including US citizens, but cannot yet confirm these reports. But what this means is that if you are an Arab or a Muslim — you are being profiled,” said Bayoumi.
“We are telling people that they should cooperate with the authorities, but in front of a legal counsel, and only in front of a legal counsel,” said Farqhunda Ali from Solidarity USA, a DC-based organization that deals primarily with racial profiling and racial issues.
“There have been over 1,000 reported incidents of harassment, racial profiling, detainment, verbal and physical abuse and hate crimes since Sept. 11, said Ali. “The FBI is holding over 600 detainees nationwide without providing any evidence when only 10 of them are accused of having links to the events of Sept. 11. The US is protecting its national interest at the expense of the civil rights of these groups.”
