12/17/98 - 11:30CST
Potential Terrorist Threats
Directed Against America and Her Allies; Chicago Institute Issues AdvisoryBy Paul Anderson, Analyst/Correspondent
Chicago, IL (EmergencyNet News) -- Analysts and advisors from the Emergency Response & Research Institute (ERRI) are this morning warning of the possibility of a terrorist threat directed against American or British interests, throughout the world. According to Clark Staten, ERRI Executive Director and Sr. National Security Analyst, the advisory is being based on a number of converging factors, indicating an increased likelihood of future terrorist events.
"Today, we are issuing an advisory calling on all domestic emergency service agencies to undertake an advanced state of awareness and preparedness in regard to the possibility of a terrorist attack within the United States," Staten said. "Although we do not have knowledge of a specific threat or target at the present time, it would be our considered opinion that the likelihood of terrorist assault on the United States or her allies is at its highest level since the 1991 Persian Gulf campaign," the veteran emergency manager said. "While we are certainly not 'peddling panic,' we believe additional watchfulness and vigilance are warranted at this time," Staten added.
According to Staten, Abdel Ghani Abdel Ghafur, an official with the ruling Baath party in Iraq, today called on all Arab nations, saying that they had a "responsibility to launch Jihad (holy war) against the aggressor countries and their interests everywhere because they are hostile to Arabs and Moslems." Ghafur's call for Jihad follows a variety of other threat indicators that contribute to the ERRI assessment and terrorism advisory.
Staten said that in addition to Ghafur's comments, members of the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf area have been in a "Threatcon Charlie" alert posture for the past several days, following warnings from national intelligence assets that alleged terrorist mastermind and financier Osama bin Laden may be about to undertake a terror act in that region. That assessment and the subsequent heightened security status was reportedly based on intercepted communications between Bin Laden and
his operatives in other parts of the Mid-East.
Additionally, Staten said that threats had reportedly been received from the break-away Russian region of Chechnya, where President Aslan Maskhadov said his forces were preparing to strike at U.S. and British interests. Staten said that it was likely that other fundamentalist extremist groups would also be "heard from" in the near future.
Domestic Preparedness For The Threat
According to discussions with them, government officials in a number of agencies are concerned not just about retaliation as a result of the Iraq attacks, but about previous unspecified threats that Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the embassy bombings in East Africa, might be planning attacks in the U.S.
The General Services Administration (GSA), the protectors of most federal buildings, went into a security posture known as "heightened awareness" on Monday night, with guards checking bags and asking for identification. Individual federal buildings, particularly those in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and those that are considered more likely to be targets of terrorists may adopt even stricter security measures.
Representatives from GSA's Federal Protective Service and from intelligence and law-enforcement agencies last night told the Wall Street Journal that they were considering whether to go to the next level of security, called "heightened alert." That could result in expanding the security perimeters around federal facilities, which could lead to further delays for those entering or leaving federal facilities.