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Fearing an attack, FBI wants to find them now

Some question the timing and the validity of a warning that al-Qaida is planning an imminent attack in the U.S.

WASHINGTON - Warning that al-Qaida is plotting a deadly attack this summer in the United States, the FBI reinvigorated a hunt Wednesday for seven terrorist suspects and planned an extensive canvass of American Muslims in the hopes of gathering fresh intelligence.

A steady stream of credible new information from multiple sources suggests that al-Qaida is nearly ready to attack again, Attorney General John Ashcroft said. He said that in an ominous warning following the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, an al-Qaida spokesman revealed that arrangements for an attack on America were 90 percent complete.

"This disturbing intelligence indicates al-Qaida's specific intention to hit the United States hard," Ashcroft said at a news conference Wednesday with FBI Director Robert Mueller.

But some intelligence officials and terrorism experts offered a more tempered assessment. And some opponents of President Bush, including police and firefighter union leaders aligned with Sen. John Kerry, said the timing of the announcement seemed intended to distract attention from Bush's sagging poll numbers and problems in Iraq.

The administration did not raise the terrorist threat advisory from its current level of elevated, or yellow, and the White House said Bush would not alter his schedule because of security concerns.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, appearing on several morning news shows Wednesday, appeared to downplay the threat. He said the new intelligence behind the alert was "not unlike what we've seen for the past several years." The threat information doesn't contain specifics about a time, place or method of attack, but Ashcroft said a number of high-profile events leading up to the presidential election in November present attractive targets. Those include the G-8 economic summit in Georgia, the political conventions in Boston and New York, the dedication of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington on Memorial Day weekend and Fourth of July celebrations.

The FBI issued "Be On The Lookout" alerts Wednesday, asking the public and local law enforcement for help finding seven people with ties to al-Qaida. It's not known whether the people are believed to be part of a terror plot or whether they're in the United States.

Ashcroft described the seven as "armed and dangerous."

Most of the names were already fixtures on the FBI's Web site. Six of the seven have been sought for months - or, in some cases, years - by the FBI. Chief among them is Saudi-born Adnan El Shukrijumah. El Shukrijumah lived for years in South Florida and is fluent in English. The new addition to the FBI list is Adam Yahiye Gadahn, a 25-year-old U.S. citizen from Southern California who converted to Islam, attended an al-Qaida training camp and is known to have performed translations for the group.

Ashcroft said that while al-Qaida suspects remain primarily men in their late 20s and early 30s, he cautioned Wednesday that the "face of al-Qaida may be changing." He said the terror group's operatives may be traveling in the United States with a family or portraying themselves as Europeans in order to avoid detection.

The FBI also will begin conducting interviews nationwide, similar to the program it launched before the war in Iraq in which agents interviewed thousands of Iraqi-Americans to gather information.

Mueller and Ashcroft declined to say which communities the FBI would focus on, saying the interviews would be driven by intelligence. But such sweeps in the past have focused on Muslim and Arab communities. Muslim leaders worried that they were again being targeted for unwanted attention.

"It's part of the "round up the usual suspects' mentality," said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council for American Islamic Relations. "When you don't have any other leads, you gather up the Muslims."

Some intelligence officials said they were uncertain that the link between the fresh intelligence and the likelihood of another attack was as apparent as Ashcroft made it out to be. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security said just a day before Ashcroft's announcement that they had no new intelligence pointing to the threat of another terrorist attack.

Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who is a member of the Intelligence Committee, said the committee had received no word of any new information of the type Ashcroft described.

The announcement came after weeks in which Bush's political standing has been battered by events in Iraq and at a time when his re-election campaign is seeking to portray Kerry as being opposed to the USA Patriot Act, which gives the government broad powers to combat terrorism in the United States. Authorities knew weeks ago about al-Qaida's claims that its attack plans were 90 percent complete.

Harold Schaitberger, head of the International Association of Fire Fighters, told reporters in a conference call organized by Kerry's campaign that he found the timing to be "politically convenient at best" because it came after "we see the president's approval ratings plummet."

Kerry issued a statement in which he said he knew Americans had been "struck by the seriousness and concern coming from this administration," but went on to attack the administration for not doing more to bolster domestic security.

The Justice Department delivered a swift rebuttal.

"We don't do politics at the Justice Department, we just do our best to protect the American people from terrorists," said Mark Corallo, chief spokesperson at the department.

- Information from Knight Ridder News Service, the New York Times and the Associated Press was used in this report.

Q: What's the terror threat that federal officials are warning about?

A: Few specifics were offered, but Attorney General John Ashcroft said, "Credible intelligence from multiple sources indicates that al-Qaida plans to attempt an attack on the United States in the next few months." He said terrorists may already be in the United States preparing for an attack.

A: Officials publicized photos of seven suspected al-Qaida operatives. The FBI urged anyone who spots the suspects to "report information to your nearest FBI field office or law enforcement agency."

Q: Is the terror threat level being raised from its current yellow to the more urgent orange or red?

A: No. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge appeared to downplay the situation in appearances on news shows Wednesday morning. He said the intelligence behind the threat alert has caused the government to raise awareness and vigilance "a little bit higher than usual" but does not require changing the threat level.

Q: When was the last time the terror alert was raised?

A: It has been raised from yellow to orange five times since the system was started in March 2002. The last time was Dec. 21, 2003, when it was changed based on a high level of communications intercepts that might foreshadow terror attacks. It returned to yellow Jan. 9.

Q: Was there any criticism of the new warning?

A: Some Democrats suggested the administration may be scaring people on scant evidence, perhaps to divert attention from troubles in Iraq. Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the threat appears serious but added, "We'll never know if the administration has new and justifiable information for this new warning. I think there's a building skepticism about warnings from the Bush administration."

- Sources: Times wires, FBI Web site