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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory...l/iraq/1802999
March 4, 2003, 10:21AM
Ridge admits war likely to increase terrorist attacks
By PHILIP SHENON
New York Times
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration Monday offered its bluntest warning that a war with Iraq could bring new terrorist attacks within the United States. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge acknowledged that "there may be more threats, there have been more threats, if we go to war."
Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups have vowed to carry out strikes within U.S. borders in the event of a war against Iraq. On Monday, Ridge made clear that the administration is taking the threats seriously.
"I think we can anticipate more noise in the system, more threats, because of a potential invasion," Ridge said. "I mean, it's fairly predictable, and we see some of that now.
"Our job at Homeland Security is to be prepared, regardless," said Ridge, who took formal control last weekend of several large law enforcement and security agencies, including the Customs Service, the Secret Service and the Coast Guard.
Administration officials said Ridge's comments Monday -- which came as he and other officials continued to express their delight over the weekend capture of a senior al-Qaida operative, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed -- were an effort to lay the groundwork for a decision soon to put the nation on a higher level of alert and take other action to prepare for a domestic terrorist strike.
Last week, the administration lowered the alert level to "elevated risk," or yellow on its color-coded scale, after a jittery 20-day period during which the nation was at "high risk," or orange.
The officials said that while there is no solid evidence of an imminent domestic terrorist threat, intelligence agencies are reporting from a variety of sources -- including interviews with captured al-Qaida terrorists and electronic surveillance -- that terror groups hope to time an attack to the beginning of a military campaign against Iraq.
In a classified intelligence bulletin last month, the FBI offered a similar warning to state and local law enforcement agencies, alerting them to the possibility that a war with Iraq could unleash acts of anti-American violence by extremists who do not belong to al-Qaida or other Middle Eastern terrorist groups but sympathize with their grievances against the United States.
When the administration raised the terror alert last month, Ridge's office urged the public to buy duct tape and plastic sheeting to prepare to deal with a chemical or biological attack, setting off a wave of public anxiety rarely seen since Sept. 11.
Ridge spoke Monday as if war is a certainty and the public needs to prepare itself for the possibility of a new terrorist strike.
Even while acknowledging that the domestic terror threat might grow, Ridge insisted that a war to oust Saddam Hussein and disarm Iraq is a necessary step in combating terrorism.
"The war on Iraq is clearly a critical piece of the war on terrorism," he said.
"The war in Iraq is involved in the disarmament of Saddam Hussein, who has chemical and biological and, we believe, is building the capacity to develop nuclear weapons," Ridge said.
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