FBI Again Warns of Chemical Attacks
May 28 -- For at least the third time in three months, the FBI is warning law enforcement officials nationwide to be on alert for chemical and biological attacks, ABCNEWS has learned.
In its latest bulletin, sent out today to 18,000 law enforcement agencies, FBI officials warned that while there is no specific threat, al Qaeda and groups sympathetic to its cause "continue to enhance their ability" to launch attacks designed to cause "mass casualties."
The bulletin describes a number of chemical and biological agents that could be used in an attack and describes symptoms that would emerge from exposure to those agents.
The FBI bulletin warned that these terror groups could use chemical agents such as hydrogen cyanide, cyanogen chloride, sodium or potassium cyanide, mustard gas, anthrax, botulism toxin or ricin in an attack.
Intelligence sources told ABCNEWS the government's concerns about a chemical and biological attack are based on no new specific information, but on general chatter and documents seized from Afghanistan, Pakistan and other locations.
No Specific Threat But Great Concern
This latest FBI bulletin comes as the nation remains on a state of high alert for terror attacks. Last week, the Bush administration raised the domestic threat level warning to orange, or "high," a decision made in part because of a series of threatening messages found on the Internet. A previous FBI bulletin obtained by ABCNEWS pointed to two recent e-mails intercepted by U.S. intelligence.
The latest bulletin cites no specific threats, and it is unclear if the bureau was sending the series of bioterror warnings to be extra-cautious, or because investigators fear such an attack may be in the planning stages somewhere.
One source told ABCNEWS that there is real concern on the issue. Officials, the source said, are concerned specifically about cyanide, although no one has any date for any attack. There is fear that terrorists could be storing the deadly poison for an attack two years from now or on the Fourth of July, but officials simply do not know.
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