Threats Force the FBI to Cancel Tours

The FBI halted the popular public tours of its headquarters Friday for an indefinite period in response to an unconfirmed, nonspecific threat against bureau facilities here and earlier threats against the headquarters itself.

NBC News reported that the threat concerned possible terrorist attacks by followers of Osama bin Laden, the wealthy Islamic radical who is charged in this country with masterminding last August’s bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.

One law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, would say only that “recent events suggest it’s fairly evident Bin Laden’s followers would be the prime suspects.”

The threat was detected several weeks ago, another law enforcement official said, adding: “We have been unable to corroborate it in any way, shape or form by all the means we have.”

FBI spokesman Tron Brekke said the tours, taken by 250,000 people annually, would be suspended “indefinitely, until we can do a security assessment to ensure the safety of our employees and tourists.”

“There is a threat against FBI facilities in Washington, D.C.,” Brekke said. But he added the recent threat is “nonspecific and uncorroborated,” that is, no specific target was identified.

“Nevertheless, we have to take it seriously,” he said. The bureau has two buildings here, each covering a city block: one for its headquarters and another for its Washington field office.

Another law enforcement official said that, in addition to the recent threat, the FBI has regularly received threats over the years that specify the headquarters itself, and security there has been improved. The last round of security improvements came in response to the nonspecific threat several weeks ago, this official said.

Until Friday, however, the security improvements had not addressed the safety of tourists who line up outside the FBI headquarters to take the tour.

“We’ve been taking steps to combat any attempts to harm Americans at home or abroad,” said White House spokesman Joe Lockhart.

The recent threat was not conveyed directly to the government by letter, telephone call or other communication, Brekke said. Rather it was discovered by intelligence means.

Five U.S. embassies in Africa were closed last month for several days for security reasons. The State Department did not specifically link the closures to Bin Laden, but officials have said he is believed to be planning an attack against Americans.

The FBI began opening its headquarters to public tours in 1937, when the bureau occupied part of the Justice Department building on Pennsylvania Avenue, a few blocks from the White House.

In 1975, the tours moved across the street to the new FBI headquarters in the J. Edgar Hoover Building. The tours are highlighted by agents demonstrating the firing of a submachine gun.

People on the tour also get to see, through glass partitions, the FBI laboratory.

Security concerns caused temporary cancellation of tours during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, domestic rioting in 1968, the anti-Vietnam War “May Day” protests in the early 1970s and World War II.