FBI Issues Urgent Attack Alert

The FBI warned Monday night that a suspected terrorist from Yemen and as many as 16 associates could be planning an attack against Americans as early as today.

The FBI identified the main suspect as Fawaz Yahya Al-Rabeei, a Yemeni national born in Saudi Arabia in 1979.

The alert said that an attack could occur in the United States or against U.S. interests in Yemen. It was the most specific of the four nationwide alerts that the FBI has issued since Sept. 11, following earlier warnings that some condemned as vague and alarmist.

“The credibility of the threat on this one appears a little stronger than the previous alerts,” said a law enforcement official who requested anonymity. “But we don’t have information on any specific targets.”

The alert was triggered by information gathered both at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, where U.S. authorities have been interviewing detained Al Qaeda operatives, and in Afghanistan, where the U.S. military has been sifting through material left in the rubble by Al Qaeda forces, law enforcement officials said.

A detainee recently flown to Guantanamo Bay from Afghanistan told American investigators about someone in Afghanistan whose brother mentioned “an imminent attack on the 12th,” said a U.S. official who asked not to be identified.

The warning was issued on the fourth day of the Winter Olympics, which are taking place in Salt Lake City amid extraordinarily tight security measures.

The alert, issued to 18,000 law enforcement agencies and the public at large, read: “Recent information indicates a planned attack may occur in the United States or against U.S. interests in the country of Yemen on or around 02/12/02. One or more operatives may be involved in the attack.” It is posted on the FBI Web site, https://www.fbi.gov.

Al-Rabeei’s whereabouts are unknown, and law enforcement officials said he is not believed to have shown up on any of the watch lists that the FBI and other agencies have been using to track suspected terrorists since Sept. 11.

A spokesman for California Gov. Gray Davis said the governor’s office passed the warning on to California law enforcement officials Monday.

“In the wake of this latest FBI alert, California law enforcement officials continue to be on high alert. Since receiving notice from the FBI, we have notified all California law enforcement of the threat with names of suspects via the California Anti-Terrorism network,” said Steven Maviglio, the governor’s press secretary.

“No other actions are being taken at this time.”

At the center of the FBI alert is Al-Rabeei, who may also use the name Furqan or numerous other aliases. He and as many as 16 associates are considered “extremely dangerous,” the FBI said. The agency urged local police to be on the lookout for any members of the group.

The FBI posted photos of 13 of the suspects on its Web site. The photos appear to be standard passport photos; all but three of the 17 suspects are believed to carry Yemeni passports.

Information Gathering Suggests Al Qaeda Link

The FBI’s warning drew no direct link between Al-Rabeei and Al Qaeda, but the fact that the directive was triggered by information gathered in Al Qaeda interrogations strongly suggests that he may be associated with Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network.

“We don’t know if the target is in the United States or against U.S. interests or somewhere else,” said the U.S. official. “We think Yemen is a possibility, but it’s really not clear.”

The FBI has been probing Yemen terrorist connections more aggressively in recent weeks, and President Bush spoke by phone Monday with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to review progress in the U.S.-led war on terrorism. It was not clear whether the two leaders also discussed the tip that led to the FBI warning.

Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, said early Monday that Bush “expressed appreciation for the Saleh government’s recent efforts to deny terrorists use of Yemeni territory. The two agreed on the need for a sustained effort and continued cooperation in the fight against the terrorists.”

Bush’s call followed a visit Monday to Yemen by Gen. Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command, which is running the war in Afghanistan. Franks told reporters there that the Bush administration does not expect to deploy combat troops in Yemen but will help the government by providing training and other assistance.

A team of Yemeni investigators flew to Guantanamo Bay last week to help interrogate 21 Yemenis who have been detained for their suspected links to Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.

The Yemeni team includes investigators who are working on the still-unsolved attack on the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole by a squad of suicide bombers in October 2000 in the harbor of Aden. The attack killed 17 U.S. sailors.

The U.S. blames Al Qaeda for that bombing and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Yemen’s government also has launched a series of armed raids in recent weeks in an attempt to capture two senior Al Qaeda operatives, including one man wanted for the Cole attack. In one clash, 18 soldiers and six local villagers were slain.

The FBI, which drew criticism from some police for putting out past alerts to the public before sharing them with law enforcement officials, made a point of sending Monday’s warning to law enforcement agencies several hours before it went public.

Authorities Try to Corroborate Threat

While authorities are still seeking to corroborate the intelligence pointing to the prospect of a an attack today, “we wanted to get as much information out as quickly as we could,” an official said.

Spokesmen for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department said their officers have been on heightened alert since Sept. 11 and that no extra measures would be taken as a result of the new warning because it was too general.

“We haven’t done anything because there’s nothing the FBI is giving us that is specific enough to tell us where this is going to occur,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Ron Bottomley. “Our officers are always on alert since 9/11.”

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Times staff writers Bettina Boxall and Elena Gaona in Los Angeles contributed to this story.