U.S. has no plans to raise alert level for July 4 holiday

WASHINGTON - Terrorist threats against the United States, domestically and abroad, have dipped to a surprisingly low level in recent days, senior government officials said on Wednesday, in sharp contrast to intelligence reports of possible attacks that preceded last year's Fourth of July holiday.

As a result, the government has no plans to raise the terrorist threat level from its current yellow status, indicating an elevated risk of attack. Nor do the authorities plan to issue holiday warnings like the alert sent to law enforcement agencies last year.

Even without an alert, national security and homeland defense officials said Wednesday that the country's counterterrorism agencies will remain on alert and that law enforcement personnel will be out in force for public gatherings throughout the weekend.

"We have no intelligence at this time that leads us to raise the threat level," said Gordon Johndroe, chief spokesman for Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. "We know state and local law enforcement and appropriate federal agencies will have a large presence at all the major gatherings around the country."

There have been a few suspected threats in recent days. A possible threat to the energy industry in Houston was investigated by counterterrorism officials and dismissed.

On Wednesday, the FBI warned in a weekly notice to law enforcement agencies that al-Qaida operatives had obtained stolen passports from Saudi Arabia. The unissued travel documents are authentic and have security features that would allow them to pass routine inspection.

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - Police captured a militant linked to suicide bombings in the Saudi capital, days after he shot a police officer while eluding arrest, a security official said Wednesday.

The arrest came amid a nationwide sweep that has nabbed at least 125 people since May 12 attacks blamed on al-Qaida that horrified the nation. In addition to arrests, police in bulletproof vests now man checkpoints in major cities, checking ID, searching cars, and keeping watch from behind machine guns.

The latest arrest brought in Zafer Abdul Rahman al-Shihri on Tuesday night in an abandoned house in the southern province of al-Namas, said an Interior Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity, according to the Associated Press.

Al-Shihri had eluded police when they tried to arrest him Saturday, wounding a police officer, the official said. On Sunday, a state helicopter crashed while chasing al-Shihri, injuring 10 soldiers on board.

He was found with 50 automatic rifles, ammunition, a personal computer and fake identification, the official Saudi Press Agency said Wednesday.

Al-Shihri is wanted for helping the 19 men suspected of carrying out the May 12 attacks, which killed 25 people. Nine attackers also were killed.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani authorities have detained an Islamic militant whom they suspect of masterminding three attacks on Christians last year, killing nearly a dozen people including two Americans, intelligence officials said Wednesday.

More than 50 people were wounded in the attacks in Islamabad and two other locations.

Abdul Jabbar was picked up during a raid in a remote village near the city of Sargodha, 120 miles southwest of Islamabad, the capital, an intelligence official told the Associated Press.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Jabbar played a key role in organizing the attacks on two churches and a missionary school in 2002.

PARIS - A French court on Wednesday ordered the release of nine people arrested during a recent broad antiterrorism sweep, including the leader of an exile group seeking to topple Iran's ultrareligious government, judicial officials said.

But the Paris appeals court said Maryam Rajavi, a leader of the group Mujahedeen Khalq, and one other defendant must first pay bail. Rajavi was ordered to pay about $93,000 and likely will not be released before today, the officials said.

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