Intel Surge
U.S. Intelligence Learn of Possible Threats to New York and Other Cities



Dec. 19— Authorities are evaluating a surge of information related to possible terrorist threats to a number of cities in the United States, including New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., ABCNEWS has learned.  





Threat information is coming from intelligence intercepts, interrogation of recent detainees and other methods, sources say. Intelligence and law enforcement officials are currently evaluating the threat information.

Sources say the threat to New York City possibly involves a female suicide bomber, but no specific target has been identified and intelligence sources are still evaluating the credibility of this threat. The New York City Police Department released a statement saying it has "no credible intelligence pointing to a specific or imminent terrorist threat" in the city.

In the threats received for other cities, including Los Angeles and Washington, no mode of attack has been identified and no location or specific cells were named.

Senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security, intelligence and law enforcement have a planned meeting Monday to evaluate the recent surge in information related to possible terror threats.

"We have remained concerned about the volume of reporting of threats and that is why the Department of Homeland Security has sent out several bulletins over the past few weeks to homeland security officials and law enforcement personnel, urging all to continue be on heightened state of alert especially, as we enter the busy holiday season," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said today at a news conference.

Preparations Already Under Way

Officials around the nation were already actively engaged in serious discussions with the Department of Homeland Security about whether events, chatter and the time of year warrant elevating the threat level inside the United States to orange, or high, for the upcoming holiday season that starts tonight at sunset.

Considerations underpinning the discussions include the capture of Saddam Hussein, information gleaned from online chat rooms, classified information arising from one of the former Soviet republics and increased concerns of authorities in Italy, the United Kingdom and Poland, sources say.

The discussions are part of an intense series of conference calls and personal meetings between officials that have been ongoing since at least Wednesday, as the nation enters the holiday rush.

An estimated 500,000 people are expected to flood into New York City for this year's Times Square New Year Eve's bash. There, they will watch as retired Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson, a former prisoner of war in Iraq, will press the Waterford crystal button that signals the dropping of the ball.

 Mitigating against raising the level to orange are fiscal considerations. State officials say the cost of raising the threat level is too high unless there is a specific threat. Today in New York City, law enforcement officials began finalizing their plans for the New Year's security package, which will include the welding shut of manhole covers, the removal of post office boxes, and the preparation of a rodeo-like series of pens and gates that funnel backpack-less revelers into the area along Broadway.

Heavy weapons teams, bomb squads, city, state and federal weapons of mass destruction units, bioterror sensors, undercover agents, thousands of uniformed officers and so-called Arch Angel convoys — units trained to remove dignitaries in case of an incident — are all part of the plan.

Sources said there is only a "slight chance" the nation could go to orange and it is much more likely that additional alerts will go out and local officials can then choose how to respond on their own.

The five levels of terrorism alerts, as well as recommended government and private-sector responses include the following:

Green: Low risk of terrorist attacks.

  Refine and exercise planned protective measures.

  Ensure emergency personnel receive training.

  Assess facilities for vulnerabilities and take measures to reduce them.

Blue: Guarded condition. General risk of terrorist attack.

  Check communications with designated emergency response or command locations.

  Review and update emergency response procedures.

  Provide the public with necessary information.

Yellow: Elevated condition. Significant risk of terrorist attacks.

  Increase surveillance of critical locations.

  Coordinate emergency plans with nearby jurisdictions.

  Assess further refinement of protective measures within the context of the current threat information.

  Implement, as appropriate, contingency and emergency response plans.

Orange: High risk of terrorist attacks.

  Coordinate necessary security efforts with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies or any National Guard or other appropriate armed forces.

  Take additional precaution at public events and possibly consider alternative venues or cancellations.

  Prepare to work at an alternate site or with a dispersed work force.

  Restrict access to threatened facilities to essential personnel only.

Red: Severe risk of terrorist attacks.

  Assign emergency response personnel and preposition specially trained teams.

  Monitor, redirect or constrain transportation systems.

  Close public and government facilities.

  Increase or redirect personnel to address critical emergency needs.

ABCNEWS' Richard Esposito, Pierre Thomas and Chris Isham contributed to this report.

The important thing is that we protect the civil rights of the suicide bombers.  As we all know the REAL threat to American citizens is our own government.

Maybe we should ask the ACLU if suicide bombing is a form of free speech protected under the first amendment.

There is a [b]ton[/b] of static coming from Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, Ukraine, Georgia and Chechnya these days.

Well, I say bring it motherfuckes.

The Sheeple need to wake up to reality so we can do the things we need to do to be safe without compromising our own CITIZEN's liberty.(e.g., completely END immigration from all areas for a while, reopening it only to certain areas and after EXHAUSTIVE processes are followed).  

This might seem morbid, uncalled for, or out of line, but I almost hope there's another terrorist attack on American soil to wake people up and make them realize that this is not over by any stretch of the imagination. The fad mentality in the USA burns me up. It would also give us an excuse to go blow up another country, namely Syria. We can't prove it in court, but come on. We all know what's going on here.

Edited to add: Suicide bombings in the USA would be the worst and one of the last mistakes somebody ever made.

As sad as it is to say, you guys are right.

The sheep went back to sleep after 9/11 at the urging of a Government that insisted that only IT could deal with the problem (after you gave them billions of dollars to play “let's shuffle the departments”)

I’ve said all along that it will take a violently bloody, visceral attack to bring people around.  My “pet favorite” scenario has always been the synchronized mall attack.  Multiple locations throughout Disarmed America (states with no CCW) run with teams gunning down shoppers and then finishing up by the shooters blowing themselves up.

Christmas is an IDEAL time for the bastards to run such an op.

For people like us we would lock and load and be ready to take out any Tangos at the drop of a hat.  Unfortunately I’m afraid that the rest of America would run screaming to Government to make the bad men please go away, begging Government to take more of their freedoms for the chimera of perceived safety.

This might turn out to bee nothing but it IS gonna happen. Its just a matter of WHEN.

A mall packed with Christmas shoppers make a good target.

I agree with the above comments. Sad isnt it?

Nah. They'd be more successfull in pairs with RPK's or PKM's.
Maybe then they'd let us carry... or not.

More attacks=more erosion of our liberty


Don't fool yourself .gov will go after total control.


But some of you would gladly give it up for safety........

Looks like Wave won't get New Year's off after all.

Just another reason to stay home for New Year's Eve and load mags.

Does this mean I should avoid The Mall of America the day after Christmas?  (this is a serious query)

GunLvr

Yes.
Avoid everything.
That means WE LOSE.

Maybe we should turn "Mr. & Mrs. America" loose on the world of terrorists; be like them for a while; it's kind of what it would take, isn't it?
That's the fundamental difference between US and THEM, though.
WE won't do it THEIR way...it would be uncivilized.
I think Cowboy Justice suits the world pretty well when it come to dealing with low-down varmints like terrorists.

If you haven't noticed it yet, they already won (sadly).

Look at life "now" and life in y2k.

We have less liberties, trying to get on an airplane is a PITA, and we are continually chattering about 'The Next Attack'.

Well, looking at the definition of "Terrorism", they did it right.  They do not even have to do ANYTHING to affect our choices of daily activities now.  [:(]

I'll be glad to give up more of my liberties,,,,if it will help [rolleyes][brick]

So, let me get this straight.

There may or may not be an attack on New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

It may or may not be a woman.

No specific target has been identified.

There is "no credible intelligence pointing to a specific or imminent terrorist threat".

No mode of attack has been identified.

No location or specific cells were named.

"...information gleaned from online chat rooms..."
[now I feel safe]

"The five levels of terrorism alerts, as well as recommended government and private-sector responses include the following:"

Green: Business as usual.

Blue: Be alert.

Yellow: Stay alert.

Orange: Pack heat.

Red: Vhere are yur paperz?


Another atack on US soil will NOT wak up the sheeple. If you viewed the Towers falling and can FORGET THAT, it's already too late. People being forced to jump from the buildings because that was the "easier" way to go. If you can see that, then a suicide bombing in a city 1000 miles away is going to do nothing to wake you up. A bombing at a mall in your neighborhood, where you were not present, may have a limited effect.

However, an attck on US soil will do one thing, it will remove more of OUR rights.

I work a block from the NYSE where the PD has officers with M4's and MP5's walking around on the street. I "understand" this but I don't like it.

No, I don't know what the answer is, but taking away our freedoms and rights is not the answer.

Sorry for the rant.

Putting all the rhetoric, media hype, rainbow of threat levels aside; I'm surprised that some suicide bomber hasn't turned himself into pink mist in Times Square (or any other high volume tourist/pedestrian area like Fisherman's Warf in SF, Disney, etc), long ago.  Think of the effect it would have on people in general. Those areas are much more open than some of the places that had it happen in Isreal.

Ya know, I work in a mall and this prospect kind of scares the shit out of me.

3 or 4 coordinated attacks in different malls in America on the same day during the Christmas shopping season would really screw the retailers over bad. It would be nothing for 2 or 3 terrorists to enter a mall with concealed weapons and at a predetermined time open fire. If this happened in 4 different states at about the same time, nobody would feel safe. Malls would quickly become very empty throughout America. The psycological effects would be enormous.

As for me, I try to find stuff to do that keeps me out of the common areas this time of year. There is always a pump seal that needs changing in the power plant or maybe the chillers need to be torn down for rodding out. C'mon January 1.

Terrorists have already won the war on Liberty, that's cristal clear. No one will ever say one day "Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm proud to say that we won the War on Terror"

But of course that's not enough to this fuckers, they want to make the US and the whole Western Civilization collapse (go grab a copy of "Clash of Civilizations"), not only that their citizens loose some precious rights.

In order to won a total war against the US they have to hit a single nerve, the Economy.

And how do you do that?
You have to force the people in general, the large population of consumers not to buy anything new, stock up what they have and "wait for better times"

You can "easily" do that by bombing (or mass shooting, or BioWep, etc, etc, etc) several large Malls and making people too afraid to go those "crass consumerism places". That's as simple.

Bombings of US targets in another countries are nothing that the US population (stop thinking the US population is like you and me!) can REALLY relate to. Yeah, they might feel bad about it (or cheer about it if they belong to fucking DU) but back on US soil, on their everyday lives it's business as usual.

In order to disrupt the Economy you have to make the people feel (forget about think here) they're insecure, not when they go to a "Large Previsible Target" like Disney or the former WTC, but on their everyday lives. That's what would screw the US up.

You can target Malls, bars, discos, schools and a variety of stuff to acomplish that. Then the US would have a Israel-like scenario to deal with, with the "minor" exception that the US population has not an Israeli mindset, and it will take A LOT of time (if ever) to act like every other day, just placing the fear of being blown the hell up on the background of their minds and keep on with their lives.

Good news about this is that the US goverment is not run by idiots and they KNOW this, this is not something my rice crispies told me, it's just a basic assesment of reality.

Bad news about it's (1) that in order to prevent this they will have to limit more rights and that (2) eventually, some day, some lucky asshole is going to do it anyway and the .gov will not going to be able to make up a cover story about it...

I really pity the World the day this happens, I really hope I'm wrong here, but I'm pretty sure is just a matter or time...

And this ladies and gentlemes is why I don't like the future.


Have a pleasant week-end, I'm gonna take a shower.


NsB



I suck at spelling

In my religion, we believe that The Lord will never let the constitution, nor its Bill of Rights,  be destroyed.  I guess that gives me a little comfort.

But that doesnt mean bad things wont happen.  We also believe in being prepared.[:)]

Absolutely no apology required.  It was a most eloquent rant.

[img]http://www.mountaintop.org/ar/wont-forget.jpg[/img]

Still up in the air about the Mall of America.  Not so much worried about my safety as that of my wife and baby.

GunLvr

I live 40 miles north of the MAll of America,
I avoid it at all times!!!!

[img]http://patriotnetwork.net/images/smilies/tinhat2.gif[/img]

Maybe I'll be at the mall.  Maybe some of us will be ready if something happens.  Maybe some of us will be at home under our beds.  You choose.

I wouldn't mind if a suicide bomber was driving to his target and prematurely blew up, with all the shrapnel staying inside his car. That way some of the sheep would wake up without any innocent US citizens getting hurt

yes, but not because of a fear of attack but due to the fact that malls are crazy and packed with people on that day
I made the mistake of picking up a last minute gift yesterday at a mall. good was it bad and I only went to one store that had its own external exit.
I normally suggest avoiding malls from thanksgiving until mid january

Everyone in the world knows the terrorists are living in safety, planning their next attack in Iran, Syria and Pakistan.

Why does our government allow this? I thought the promise was to root them out wherever they are being given sanctuary.

I'm tired of this color alert and that with a government bogged down in Iraq while terrorists all over the rest of the middle east prepare attacks on America. Talk about playing right into the terrorists hands after we had them on the run in Afghanistan. We let them off the hook. Why???

Aren't we past worrying about what the rest of the do nothing world thinks?

If we hadn't diverted so many resources to Iraq, where there were no terrorists, we could have already moved into Pakistan to capture bin laden and his henchmen. Then wherever else we needed to go.

I laugh at the people on this board calling others sheep. What are you doing???

The place not to be:

Times Square, NYC, at or near midnight on New Year's,  or any time during the day or night of Christmas Eve or Christmas day.

If I were utterly crazy and out to make a big impression (well, a big crater, anyway) then I'd head for the falling apple at midnight 12/31 to 1/1, NYC, and pull the cord.   Dressed in a fat suit full of explodables,  one person could kill several hundred in a crowd like that.


CJ

Why do the ideas always have to be grandios? Or maybe Im just thinking they always seem that way. I think if Terrorist want to make an impact, they spread out the damage, make it random, not just in DC or NY, but in some small town in Maine, or a mall in Tennessee. They pull off a shot gun effect instead of some big bang in a obvious place and I think in this situation it would have a greater impact. It tells everyone it can happen ANYWHERE, not just the likely places like NY or DC. If I had to think of an effective way of being a terrorist thats what I would do. You have to start thinking like a terrorist to only imagine the worst of the worst. I could tell you visions Ive had that would make your hair on your neck stand up but I dont want to give any observing eyes any ideas. They just make me feel all sick inside when I think of them.

Thank god NY has absolutly no CCW![rolleyes]