Officials brace for attacks
on home front

With the commencement of war in Iraq, law-enforcement officials are bracing for retaliatory terrorist attacks here on the home front.

In raising the terror-threat assessment to high, or "orange," Monday night, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said it was not a matter of if the United States would come under attack, but when.

The raised threat level triggers heightened security measures, including at the nation's energy and transportation systems and at petro-chemical facilities.

The Washington Times reports terrorists have targeted America's largest nuclear power plant near Phoenix, as security officials search for Iraqi government "sleeper cells" that might carry out the attack.

In response, National Guard troops were deployed to the Palo Verde nuclear plant, located in the Sonora desert 50 miles west of Phoenix.

Federal authorities are investigating suspicious activity at the Marcus Hook Refinery in Marcus Hook, Penn., after two Middle Eastern men were observed driving slowly near the propane and jet fuel tanks and ducking from police late Tuesday night, reports WCAU-TV.

The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services took them into custody. The driver said he was from Jordan. The other man is a U.S. citizen, apparently from Yemen.

Citing sources, WCAU said police found chemistry books, books written in Arabic and religious tapes in the car, and a white powder in the trunk. The FBI is testing the substance to determine what it is. The driver also was found to have a life insurance policy of a significant amount with him.

WorldNetDaily reported earlier this month that federal investigators arrested two Middle Eastern brothers in East Tennessee after one of them was spotted taking pictures of the Norris Dam.

This afternoon, the FBI launched a worldwide manhunt for a suspected al-Qaida operative who may be plotting attacks, according to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The bureau issued a "be on the lookout" alert, or BOLO, for Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, to law-enforcement agencies.

"El Shukrijumah is possibly involved with al-Qaida terrorist activities and, if true, poses a serious threat to U.S. citizens and interests worldwide," the FBI said in a statement.

El Shukrijumah, 27, was born in Saudi Arabia. He was last seen in Miami.

Officials say he may try to enter the U.S. using a Guyana, Saudi, Canadian or Trinidad passport and passing himself off under a half-dozen aliases, reports Fox News.

"Al-Qaida may be in the last stages of planning for large-scale attacks," warned an alert sent to thousands of Homeland Security and law-enforcement agencies across the country Monday. "There are many recent indications this planning includes the use of chemical, biological, and/or radiological materials."

The FBI also began interviewing as many as 11,000 Iraqis today in an effort to weed out those in the country illegally.

"We just want to make sure that those who are seeking asylum are who they say they are and are legitimately seeking refuge in our country because of political repression at home, not because they choose to cause us harm or bring destruction to our shores," Ridge explained.

Arab-American and civil-liberties groups decry the interviews as profiling.

As WorldNetDaily reported, several Iraqi nationals recently have been caught sneaking illegally across the U.S.-Mexican border into Arizona.

Some federal immigration officers worry about the possible divided loyalties of the thousands of Iraqi citizens living in the U.S. while the U.S. is engaged in what could be a long war and military occupation of their homeland.

Recent intelligence reports indicate Iraq has set up cells of operatives inside the U.S. or abroad that may be on standby to attack on behalf of Baghdad.

U.S. authorities last month had to expel an Iraqi journalist who covered the United Nations for the official Iraqi News Agency, because he was considered a security risk on the eve of war with Iraq. Two U.N.-based Iraqi diplomats also were asked to leave the country.

Yesterday, the FBI warned law-enforcement officials to be on the lookout for suspicious activity by vehicles with Iraqi diplomatic license plates.

"Suspicious activity involving vehicles bearing Iraqi diplomatic license plates should be reported immediately to the nearest Joint Terrorism Task Force," the weekly intelligence bulletin instructed.

State Department rules restrict the six cars to the New York and Washington, D.C., area.

Previous articles:

Threat level raised to 'high'

Can Iraqis who live in U.S. be trusted?

Feds probe suspicious activity at Norris Dam