There were adrenaline moments. A Mexican airliner bound for Los Angeles was ordered to turn around when U.S. authorities determined passengers hadn’t been thoroughly screened. At one point during the holiday week, a private airplane ventured into the restricted airspace above the White House. When the pilot didn’t respond to frantic radio dispatches from air controllers, fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the aircraft. Eventually, the authorities identified the plane’s tail number and called the pilot’s cell phone. The chastened man explained that his radio was on the fritz, and quickly changed course.
Despite the warnings–or perhaps because of them–the holidays passed without incident. But administration officials can’t savor whatever relief they may feel. Instead, they once again find themselves fending off complaints that they overreacted and caused a national frenzy for nothing. Four times before, the country had gone to Code Orange, and each time the feared attacks never materialized. It’s a sore point for the people at the Homeland Security Department, who lament they are forever caught in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. If they hadn’t issued the alert and a holiday attack had taken place, they would have been blamed for being caught unprepared and failing to warn the public. “This is in some sense a paranoid business,” says one counterterrorism official wryly.
Administration officials have worried for months about what they see as a growing credibility problem with a threat-weary public. Heading into the holiday season, news-week has learned, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge got the message that people were becoming fed up with the endless march of vague warnings about possible threats. He resolved to increase the alert status only if there were very credible intelligence pointing to specific attacks. As December wore on, U.S. intelligence agents reported that “chatter” among suspected terrorists was increasing alarmingly. Still, Ridge held out. But a few days before Christmas, he decided he could no longer wait.
What changed his mind was a deluge of intelligence that seemed to point to imminent attacks on U.S. cities. Some conversations between suspected Qaeda terrorists, intercepted by the National Security Agency, seemingly referred to an upcoming airplane attack in Los Angeles. Intelligence reports even mentioned specific routes and flight numbers on British, French and Mexican airlines, a level of detail agents had rarely heard before. Other intelligence suggested possible attacks against four cities: L.A., New York, Washington and Las Vegas. There were also hints that terrorists might target a major oil terminal in Valdez, Alaska, or launch a “dirty bomb” attack. “For the first time, people were definitely freaked out,” says a senior U.S. official.
Federal agencies launched the most drastic security measures since 9/11. Six Air France flights bound for Los Angeles over Christmas were canceled. Other international flights were shadowed by F-16 fighters. In Las Vegas, NEWSWEEK has learned, the FBI demanded that hotel owners relinquish the names of everyone who booked rooms through New Year’s so they could be matched against a master list of suspected terrorists. When one big hotel refused, it was slapped with a subpoena. In L.A., the FBI began a “disruption” campaign. Agents fanned out into the city and interrogated dozens of Middle Eastern immigrants whose names had popped up in terror-related probes. Security officials became even more alarmed when they began to examine the passenger lists of some of the potentially targeted flights. At the newly built Terrorist Screening Center in suburban Washington, analysts compared the names with government watch lists of terror suspects–and came up with several possible matches.
It turned out to be a false alarm. Believing they might have disrupted a terrorist plot, the United States asked French authorities to track down several passengers on an Air France flight whose names closely matched the list. But none had any evident connection to terrorism. One was a 6-year-old child. The FBI’s screening of Vegas hotel visitors and questioning of Arab immigrants were equally fruitless. As one counterterrorism official put it, the efforts produced “zilch.”
Though drained and somewhat frustrated, federal officials aren’t prepared to let down their guard. Privately, British and French intelligence officers say they think the United States went too far; some speculate the increased chatter may have been a Qaeda disinformation campaign designed to whip up fears. But Homeland Security officials say the display of vigilance may have deterred terrorists. “When you prevent something, you may never know you prevented it,” says a Homeland source. Administration officials told NEWSWEEK that the Code Orange alert will likely remain for at least a few more weeks. In the Situation Room, a season of late nights has only just begun.
