Terrorists May Have More Targets in U.S.
W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 3, 2004 -- The FBI is racing to find out exactly who conducted the surveillance at major U.S. financial centers, thinking they may be plotting against 10 more targets, ABC News has learned.
U.S. officials are extremely concerned that the operatives who conducted the surveillance are still in the country.
"I think around the country, we just assume that there are operatives here," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told a news conference today. "Obviously, the law enforcement community has their eyes on people they believe are connected or sympathetic to the cause."
In the computer files recovered after the arrest of a Pakistani computer engineer last month, the U.S. government has found — in addition to surveillance materials relating to the apparent U.S. targets — specific leads on who conducted the surveillance.
Investigators have been combing through the files, which were obtained after the arrest of engineer Mohammed Khan, who officials say is a member of al Qaeda.
"Any record that appears to be a telephone number, bank account number, credit card number, prepaid phone card number, anything that you can work with — that's what you're looking for," said former FBI counterterrorism agent Jack Cloonan, an ABC News consultant.
There may be more targets in al Qaeda's sights than was first reported earlier this week.
More Possible Terror Targets
Law enforcement officials said the bulk of the extensive surveillance was conducted on the Citigroup Center in Manhattan, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington, and Prudential Financial Inc.'s headquarters in Newark, N.J. Federal officials publicly identified those targets this week, along with the New York Stock Exchange.
But ABC News has learned there were references in the computer files to 10 other potential targets: seven additional targets in New York, one in Washington, another in New Jersey, and the Bank of America building in San Francisco.
U.S. officials consider the threat to those facilities less severe because there was far less documentation than on the other targets. In the case of San Francisco, sources tell ABC News just there were just two photographs of the Bank of America building.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has ratcheted up the city's threat level as a result.
"Our field ops, our tactical divisions are on much higher alert. We're frankly operating as if the elevated status, the orange status, existed here in San Francisco," Newsom said.
Police in the District of Columbia say they will be on heightened alert in the foreseeable future.
"We suspect it will at minimum be at this level of alert until November. Could go longer," said Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey.
There may be more intelligence coming, since government sources say authorities are still going searching through the computer files.
ABC News' Pierre Thomas filed this report for World News Tonight.