Avoid hard targets tomorrow

[Declan McCullagh]

I think I may take a brief away-from-DC trip...

 >From the London TImes
 >
 >THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20 2001
 >
 >Weekend alert as FBI warns of new attack
 >
 >BY DOMINIC KENNEDY AND DAMIAN WHITWORTH
 >
 >AMERICA and the West are bracing themselves for another potential
 >"Day of Infamy" this Saturday, when accomplices of the hijackers are
 >suspected of having plotted new outrages.
 >
 >The most solid evidence so far is the discovery that five associates
 >of the suicide gang had booked seats on two internal passenger
 >flights, taking them from Texas to California, in two days' time.
 >
 >FBI agents are trying to capture as many key operatives as possible
 >before any plot can be put into action.
 >
 >Water, gas and electricity suppliers, bridges, tunnels and
 >underground railways have increased security because of the perceived
 >threat of biological, chemical or physical attacks.
 >
 >In a dramatic development, three Arab airport workers in Detroit were
 >arrested after FBI agents found them in a house with handwritten
 >sketches of an airport, aircraft and runways. They had a notebook
 >containing information about the "American base in Turkey", "Alia
 >Airport" in Jordan and the "American foreign minister", legal
 >documents state. The three, Ahmed Hanna, 33, Karim Koubriti, 23, and
 >Farouk Ali-Halmoud, 21, from Morocco and Algeria, worked at Detroit
 >Metropolitan Airport preparing food for airlines.
 >
 >FBI agents stumbled across the trio while searching the address of
 >Habil al-Marabh, a suspected associate of the World Trade Centre
 >hijackers. The Arabs said that they did not know him. They have been
 >charged with conspiracy and having false immigration papers.
 >
 >The FBI is concentrating its energies on deterring more attacks this
 >Saturday. "Yes, we have heard something about September 22 but
 >nothing specific," an investigative source told America's Knight
 >Ridder news service.
 >
 >"We have information that leads us to believe that there could be
 >more attacks very soon. The same murky sources that indicated
 >something might be happening in the weeks before the attacks have
 >indicated something may be happening this weekend."
 >
 >Bob Graham, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that
 >the New York and Washington suicide strikes were "part of a larger
 >plan with other terrorism acts, not necessarily the hijacking of
 >airplanes".
 >
 >The FBI has issued a "watch list" of 223 people suspected of being
 >associates of the hijackers. Nearly a quarter of the people on the
 >list are able to fly aircraft.
 >--