WASHINGTON (REUTERS) — Jeep-borne anti-aircraft missiles and fighter jets were on high alert in the nation’s capital Wednesday as the United States mounted increased defenses against a possible new attack by al Qaeda.
Defense officials said Stinger anti-aircraft missiles were deployed around Washington this week after the threat alert was raised to “orange,” the second-highest level, due to reported threats from sources with ties to the extremist group of fugitive militant Osama bin Laden.
Al Qaeda is blamed by the United States for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America, and there were signs of increased vigilance in New York, Boston and other cities.
In New York, swarms of police circled Grand Central Station, stopping and searching some vans around the venerable train depot.
Some jittery New Yorkers were taking extreme measures. Proprietors at two midtown Manhattan shops said they had sold several hundred $300 chemical protection suits this week.
The reports came as CIA director George Tenet warned the U.S. Congress Wednesday that an attack could come in the United States or on the Arabian Peninsula as early as this week.
Heat-seeking Stingers were spotted around Washington mounted on jeep-borne “Avenger” systems carrying firing and guidance units. Each system has eight launch tubes and is operated by a two-member crew.
Some protected the Pentagon, the sprawling Defense Department headquarters that was struck by a hijacked airliner Sept. 11. Avenger systems also were deployed around Washington last year on the first anniversary of the attacks, but later were removed.
Defense officials said F-16 fighter jets had been placed on 24-hour alert in Washington and additional detection radars had been deployed in the city. They also cited improved communications between military and civilian agencies.
In testimony to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday, Tenet said the government raised its terrorist threat level “because of threat reporting from multiple sources with strong al Qaeda ties.” He said the information pointed to plots and targets “in the United States and on the Arabian Peninsula.”
“It points to plots timed to occur as early as the end of the Haj (Muslim pilgrimage), which occurs late this week, and it points to plots that could include the use of radiological dispersion devices as well as poisons and chemicals,” he said.
New York residents were confronted with an increased police presence on streets and bridges, in subways and near power stations in the wake of the increased threat alert.
COMMUTING DELAYS
In Boston, authorities evacuated four floors of a federal office building for about three hours on Wednesday morning after discovering a “suspicious” package containing a half-dozen vials of an unknown liquid.
A fire department spokesman said officials determined the package was not explosive but sent it to a state laboratory for checks as a precaution.
Some morning commuters in New York City experienced lengthy delays at tunnel entrances amid security checks. Police, bomb squads and hazardous material personnel set up around the United Nations complex and staged drills.
In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declined to detail the extent of the protective steps taken around the capital.
“Any time there’s threats that are perceived, the prudent thing to do is to take steps that seem to be appropriate,” Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon briefing. “To the extent those steps are described in great detail, it advantages nobody other than the terrorists.”
On the day the Pentagon was hit in 2001, two other hijacked airliners smashed into the World Trade Center in New York. A fourth hijacked airliner crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks left more than 3,000 people dead and were blamed on the al Qaeda network of bin Laden.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said last Friday the threat of a major terror attack against the United States in the next three weeks was perhaps the equivalent of eight on a scale of one to 10.