The specific dates for possible terrorist attacks against the United States have passed, and the volume of intelligence that prompted the government to raise the security threat to orange before Christmas has dropped slightly, federal law enforcement officials familiar with the intelligence said Sunday. But the officials and other U.S. security authorities said those developments do not diminish the threat posed by al-Qaeda and should not result in lowering the nation’s threat status from the "high risk" level. They said they suspect the terrorist group still seeks to launch another catastrophic assault against the USA on the scale of the 9/11 hijackings.
| I haven't the slightest doubt that's true. We're in an election year now... |
"We don’t know what stage a plot may be in," one of the law enforcement officials said. "We don’t have the full context of a plot." Suspicions that al-Qaeda planned another air attack, possibly using foreign carriers, led to the threat level being raised Dec. 21. All of the dates for a possible attack gathered by U.S. intelligence officials revolved around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, the official said. Although those dates have passed, the official said, the recent cancellations and delays of international flights could go on indefinitely. Intercepted communications involving suspected terrorists, combined with information obtained in interrogations of captured operatives, triggered the higher threat level and an increased focus on commercial aviation around the world. Concern for the security of passenger flights have resulted in cancellations or delays of flights originating in London, Paris and Mexico City during the past two weeks. Other suspicious flights are being escorted or shadowed by U.S. fighter jets as a precaution. Sunday, British Airways Flight 223 from London to Washington — a daily flight that has been canceled, delayed and escorted by U.S. fighter jets during the past week — was delayed again because of security concerns. |