Almanacs Put on FBI Watch List

The FBI is warning police nationwide to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books covering everything from abbreviations to weather trends could be used for terrorist planning.

In a bulletin sent Christmas Eve to about 18,000 police organizations, the FBI said terrorists may use almanacs “to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning.”

It urged officers to watch during searches, traffic stops and other investigations for anyone carrying almanacs, especially if the books are annotated in suspicious ways.

“The practice of researching potential targets is consistent with known methods of Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations that seek to maximize the likelihood of operational success through careful planning,” the FBI wrote.

Associated Press obtained a copy of the bulletin this week and verified its authenticity.

“For local law enforcement, it’s just to help give them one more piece of information to raise their suspicions,” said David Heyman, a terrorism expert for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It helps make sure one more bad guy doesn’t get away from a traffic stop, maybe gives police a little bit more reason to follow up on this.”

The FBI noted that use of almanacs or maps may be innocent, “the product of legitimate recreational or commercial activities.”

But it warned that when combined with suspicious behavior -- such as apparent surveillance -- a person with an almanac “may point to possible terrorist planning.”

“I don’t think anyone would consider us a harmful entity,” said Kevin Seabrooke, senior editor of the World Almanac.

He said the reference book includes about a dozen pages out of its total 1,000 pages that list the world’s tallest buildings and bridges but includes no diagrams or architectural schematics.

“It’s stuff that’s widely available on the Internet,” he said.