Davis Warns of Threat to Bridges

Gov. Gray Davis warned Thursday of a “credible” terrorist threat against major bridges in California, including the Golden Gate Bridge and the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, but federal officials called the threats “uncorroborated” and expressed annoyance with the governor.

“He certainly didn’t get in contact with us,” said one senior Bush administration official, who added that the White House also was unhappy with Davis’ actions.

On Wednesday, FBI officials sent a confidential alert to law enforcement agencies nationwide warning about the possibility of six rush-hour attacks on West Coast bridges sometime between today and Wednesday.

Acting on that information and what he said later were additional but unspecified reports, Davis announced in a news conference Thursday that he was deploying National Guard troops to protect the state’s most visible bridges. In addition to the Golden Gate and Vincent Thomas, the governor named the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Coronado Bridge in San Diego.

Later he backtracked a bit, saying in a second conference call with reporters that he had received information from three different federal agencies and felt he needed to alert the public “out of an excess of caution.” He suggested that he had cited the four bridges as examples but that the threat was more general in nature.

“If I didn’t make that statement and, God forbid, something happened, I’d be kicking myself,” Davis added Thursday evening on the CNN program “Larry King Live.”

Unlike Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft’s public warning Monday about the possibility of more terrorist attacks this week, the FBI did not say it had found the suspension bridge threat to be credible.

That indicates that the FBI was erring on the side of caution by passing along raw, unanalyzed intelligence from a source of questionable credibility, officials said.

One FBI official said the decision to put out such information to law enforcement agencies appears to have come in response to complaints from local police that the FBI’s past warnings were too vague to do them much good in guarding against attacks. This latest warning, in contrast, included details on dates and targets on the West Coast.

Thursday evening, hours after Davis’ first news conference, federal law enforcement authorities took the unusual step of publicly releasing a copy of Wednesday’s threat advisory. That alert, though unclassified, included the directive that it “should not be furnished to the media or other agencies outside the law enforcement/U.S. government counter-terrorism community without the permission of the FBI.”

The advisory added that “unauthorized disclosure of the FBI communications could jeopardize ongoing FBI investigations.”

Other West Coast elected officials, including Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, Washington Gov. Gary Locke and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, said Thursday they too had received the FBI alert but chose not to release a public warning.

Locke did not announce the threat because it “was so vague and it was uncorroborated,” said spokeswoman Dana Middleton. “It was just this vague information about suspension bridges across the Western states. And there was nothing in the threat that mentioned Washington state.”

After Davis directed that National Guard troops be deployed to protect the spans, transportation officials across California urged commuters to continue using them, assuring drivers that additional precautions were being taken in light of the threat.

“Over the last weeks we’ve had several of these kinds of things,” said Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority police Cmdr. Clark Lynch. “I think people are starting to take them a little more in stride.”

But one Los Angeles councilwoman said she would advise her constituents to avoid driving on the Vincent Thomas Bridge. “If it’s determined that this is a credible threat, I think it might be best to ask that the bridges be closed down,” said Councilwoman Janice Hahn, whose district includes the Harbor region of Los Angeles.

At his Los Angeles news conference Thursday afternoon, Davis said patrols on and around state bridges had been intensified since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

Davis noted that two weeks ago police discovered abandoned suitcases near the Golden Gate Bridge, a discovery he termed “distressing.”

“We’ve received from several different sources threats that the law enforcement community in general believes are credible that between Nov. 2 and Nov. 7 at rush hour there will be an effort to blow up one of those bridges,” Davis said. “The best preparation is to let the terrorists know we know what you’re up to. We’re ready. It’s not going to succeed.”

Caltrans officials said they were not surprised that the bridges had been named terrorist targets.

“The Golden Gate and Bay bridges are certainly symbols of the West Coast, if not all of America,” said Caltrans spokesman Jeff Weiss. “And they’re an integral part of the Bay Area infrastructure.”

On Thursday, transportation and law enforcement officials remained unconvinced that the threats would seriously alter use of the bridges.

P.J. Johnson, a spokesman for San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, said police on Thursday were urging commuters to “use the bridges and continue on with their daily lives.”

Officer Shawn Chase, a Highway Patrol spokesman in San Francisco, said the usual rush-hour crunch was hitting the bridges by late afternoon. But bets are off for the days ahead.

“People came to work today in their cars, now they’ve got to get home,” he said. “Who knows, the next few days might be a little different. But we’ve been through it before after the Loma Prieta earthquake.”

The 4 1/2-mile-long Bay Bridge incorporates suspension, cantilever and truss, and tunnel structures. It carries about 270,000 vehicles daily, the most of any bridge in the nation.

Davis said commuters should decide whether to use the bridges, but he added: “I want to assure them that we’re taking every step humanly possible to protect the bridges.” U.S. Coast Guard and state Fish and Game wardens patrol San Francisco Bay and San Pedro Harbor, while Highway Patrol officers are responsible for guarding the spans themselves, he said.

Davis said the state has received more than 100 bomb threats since Sept. 11. But he said the threat to the bridges appears to be far more serious. “We hope it doesn’t happen,” he said. “We’re trying to communicate we’re ready. It makes no sense for them to try this. But it is our obligation to inform the public that we’re aware of it.”

Thursday was not the first time Davis had grabbed the spotlight with a terrorist-related announcement.

Shortly after commercial jets started flying following the Sept. 11 attacks, the governor demonstrated their safety by flying around the state. In San Francisco, he disclosed that flight attendants and passengers foiled a hijack attempt that day out of LAX.

It turned out, however, that the “hijacker” was a drunken passenger who was smoking in a restroom. The governor blamed it on bad information from the National Guard.

Coast Guard officials said Thursday that they were not alerted that Davis was going to make any sort of announcement. In fact, the Guard has been on its highest state of alert since Sept. 11 “and it’s not like we can go any higher,” said Petty Officer David Connor.

That has meant patrols all over the bay, focusing on potential targets such as the bridges and the San Francisco and Oakland airports, which both sit by the bay. In addition, the Coast Guard has been boarding the dozen or more cargo ships and other deep-draft vessels that pass under the Golden Gate Bridge each day. On board, they’re checking crew and cargo for anything suspicious, and in many cases Coast Guard patrol boats escort the ships into the bay, one of the world’s largest.

“We’re ready for anything that happens,” Connor said. “We’re watching anything that could be a threat.”

Mary C. Currie, public information director for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, said pedestrians and bicycles regained access to the span after a ban last month.

“Right now, we’re in a heightened state of alert,” she said. “We’re trying to determine what steps need to be taken.”

Currie acknowledged that National Park Service police had discovered two suitcases two weeks ago beneath an approach road to the bridge. She said she could not comment on what was in the luggage or why the governor termed their discovery “distressing.”

The CHP deployed extra officers to patrol the Vincent Thomas Bridge and the Coronado Bridge.

News that terrorists might be plotting to blow up the Vincent Thomas Bridge had big-rig drivers visibly worried Thursday night.

“You bet it bothers me,” said Greg Nugent, 51, of Hemphill, Texas. “I just heard about it on the evening news, on the TV in my cab. In a few hours, I’m going to have to drive over the bridge. I don’t like being put in this situation.”

Sitting in the cab of his truck, Larry Richardson, 51, of Ocala, Fla., had a plan.

“I had just heard about this threat when I had to cross the bridge. I was a little nervous doing it too, so here’s what I’m going to do,” Richardson said. “In the morning, if it’s clear, I’ll take the bridge. But if it’s rush hour, I’ll take an alternate route that’s eight miles out of my way.”

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Times staff writers Eric Bailey in Sacramento; Tim Reiterman in San Francisco; H.G. Reza in San Diego; Hector Becerra, Miles Corwin, Louis Sahagun and Matea Gold in Los Angeles; and Eric Lichtblau and Edwin Chen in Washington contributed to this story. Glionna reported from San Francisco and Morain from Sacramento.