This is a portion of an article that I saw on the drudge report. Here's the link to the full article
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/15/politics...&partner=GOOGLE
Little Headway in Terror War, Democrats Say
By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC LICHTBLAU
ASHINGTON, Nov. 14
Even as Bush administration officials took the F.B.I. to task for a warning issued on Wednesday about possible attacks on hospitals, the F.B.I. today issued a vague and alarming alert to state and local law enforcement agencies. The alert warned that this week's message, apparently from Mr. bin Laden, plus intelligence reports and recent overseas strikes by Al Qaeda, had raised the threat of attacks.
The alert was not made public because there was no specific information about a target, officials said.
"In selecting its next targets," the F.B.I. alert said, "sources suggest Al Qaeda may favor spectacular attacks that meet several criteria: high symbolic value, mass casualties, severe damage to the American economy and maximum psychological trauma. The highest-priority targets remain within the aviation, petroleum and nuclear sectors, as well as significant national landmarks."
The F.B.I. warning was sent today as a confidential alert to 18,000 law enforcement agencies throughout the country, but it was not issued to the public. Government officials said the threat warning would remain at the current level of Code Yellow, the middle range on the five-level terror code index. That was because, the officials said, that the threats were serious enough to warn state and local authorities, but not specific enough to warrant a general alert. Vice President Dick Cheney, who has been sent to an undisclosed location under previous alerts, remained in town tonight.
At the same time, however, today's warning also urged law enforcement officials to be on guard against smaller attacks with cruder materials like simple explosives.
"The anxiety level is probably as high as it has been since the anthrax attacks," said one F.B.I. supervisor.
The F.B.I. was under fire today from some Bush administration officials for sending out a confidential alert on Wednesday warning of possible attacks at hospitals in Washington, Chicago, Houston and San Francisco. "There are some raised eyebrows here as to why they would put out something like this," said an administration official. "This was a report that didn't have a lot of credibility, then it goes out and now you really have anxiety levels raised in these cities. It was unnecessary."
