PoseidonX43
September 7th, 2011, 04:02 PM
By: MARK LANDLER (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/mark_landler/index.html?inline=nyt-per), and ERIC SCHMITT (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/eric_schmitt/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Published: September 7, 2011
WASHINGTON — Acting out of caution rather than in response to a concrete threat, the United States is tightening security on military bases and warning Americans traveling abroad to be careful in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The Obama administration said it did not have specific evidence of any attack planned to coincide with the commemoration of the anniversary. But a senior official said the administration was acting “out of an abundance of caution,” in part because it had picked up evidence that Osama bin Laden had expressed a desire to exploit the anniversary with a follow-up attack by Al Qaeda.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon announced that it had raised the force-protection level at all of its bases, as well as at the Pentagon itself. Last week, the State Department issued a worldwide travel warning, urging Americans to use vigilance abroad because Al Qaeda or its supporters could launch attacks.
“It is no secret that al Qaeda has focused on holidays and milestone events in the past,” said the Pentagon spokesman, George Little. “As you have all seen, the 10th anniversary was mentioned in the documents seized at the Abbottabad compound.”
That evidence, which came from a trove of notebooks and other materials seized by a Navy Seal team in the raid that killed Bin Laden in Pakistan, has focused the minds of officials on the potential for the anniversary to be used by Al Qaeda, its spinoff groups or even terrorists acting alone.
“It seemed more aspirational than real, and given the pressure on the Al Qaeda’s network, maybe not even feasible,” said a senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence analysis. “But what it did was affirm for us that, contrary to past analysis, Bin Laden had put some emphasis on the anniversary.”
On Tuesday, President Obama convened his national security team to review the nation’s security preparations for the 9/11 anniversary. The meeting, officials said, covered precautions for the aviation system, as well as the latest threat assessments from the Central Intelligence Agency and the F.B.I.
Mr. Obama, one of his advisors said, pressed the group to discuss potential threats that seemed improbable enough not to warrant additional government resources. The advisors, who included the newly appointed director of the C.I.A., David H. Petraeus, responded that they were comfortable with the planning.
For the Obama administration, the 9/11 anniversary provides an opportunity to highlight one of its greatest successes: counterterrorism operations. In addition to Bin Laden, the United States has eliminated several other top Al Qaeda leaders, largely crippling Al Qaeda’s original network in Pakistan.
Over the weekend, Pakistani intelligence captured a key Al Qaeda operative in a joint operation with the C.I.A., which American and Pakistani officials said went a way toward repairing the rift between the United States and Pakistan over the Bin Laden operation.
At a time when the president is being pummeled by bad economic news, the White House is eager to talk about such achievements, though it is being careful about using the president to do so. Mr. Obama himself is not expected to speak at length during the various memorial services. At ground zero, he will join other officials in reading a poem; at the Pentagon, he will simply lay a wreath.
But other officials are fanning out to make the administration’s case. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta visited the ground zero site in New York on Tuesday, while the president’s chief counterterrorism advisor, John O. Brennan, is speaking about counterterrorism policy at events throughout the week in Washington.
Source (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/us/08threat.html)
Published: September 7, 2011
WASHINGTON — Acting out of caution rather than in response to a concrete threat, the United States is tightening security on military bases and warning Americans traveling abroad to be careful in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The Obama administration said it did not have specific evidence of any attack planned to coincide with the commemoration of the anniversary. But a senior official said the administration was acting “out of an abundance of caution,” in part because it had picked up evidence that Osama bin Laden had expressed a desire to exploit the anniversary with a follow-up attack by Al Qaeda.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon announced that it had raised the force-protection level at all of its bases, as well as at the Pentagon itself. Last week, the State Department issued a worldwide travel warning, urging Americans to use vigilance abroad because Al Qaeda or its supporters could launch attacks.
“It is no secret that al Qaeda has focused on holidays and milestone events in the past,” said the Pentagon spokesman, George Little. “As you have all seen, the 10th anniversary was mentioned in the documents seized at the Abbottabad compound.”
That evidence, which came from a trove of notebooks and other materials seized by a Navy Seal team in the raid that killed Bin Laden in Pakistan, has focused the minds of officials on the potential for the anniversary to be used by Al Qaeda, its spinoff groups or even terrorists acting alone.
“It seemed more aspirational than real, and given the pressure on the Al Qaeda’s network, maybe not even feasible,” said a senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence analysis. “But what it did was affirm for us that, contrary to past analysis, Bin Laden had put some emphasis on the anniversary.”
On Tuesday, President Obama convened his national security team to review the nation’s security preparations for the 9/11 anniversary. The meeting, officials said, covered precautions for the aviation system, as well as the latest threat assessments from the Central Intelligence Agency and the F.B.I.
Mr. Obama, one of his advisors said, pressed the group to discuss potential threats that seemed improbable enough not to warrant additional government resources. The advisors, who included the newly appointed director of the C.I.A., David H. Petraeus, responded that they were comfortable with the planning.
For the Obama administration, the 9/11 anniversary provides an opportunity to highlight one of its greatest successes: counterterrorism operations. In addition to Bin Laden, the United States has eliminated several other top Al Qaeda leaders, largely crippling Al Qaeda’s original network in Pakistan.
Over the weekend, Pakistani intelligence captured a key Al Qaeda operative in a joint operation with the C.I.A., which American and Pakistani officials said went a way toward repairing the rift between the United States and Pakistan over the Bin Laden operation.
At a time when the president is being pummeled by bad economic news, the White House is eager to talk about such achievements, though it is being careful about using the president to do so. Mr. Obama himself is not expected to speak at length during the various memorial services. At ground zero, he will join other officials in reading a poem; at the Pentagon, he will simply lay a wreath.
But other officials are fanning out to make the administration’s case. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta visited the ground zero site in New York on Tuesday, while the president’s chief counterterrorism advisor, John O. Brennan, is speaking about counterterrorism policy at events throughout the week in Washington.
Source (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/us/08threat.html)