This story provides some leads on what might be the reason for the latest security alert:
Meanwhile, an administration official said the urgent terrorism alert sounded Monday evening by Attorney General John Ashcroft was based largely on a message transmitted Sunday night by an Osama bin Laden supporter in Canada to Afghanistan. That message referred to a major event that was going to take place "down south" this week, the official said. Knight Ridder reported Monday that American officials feared that members of bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network had been unleashed to launch attacks without specific permission from their superiors.
And...
As the nation again stands on high alert, the FBI is searching for six men stopped by police in the Midwest last weekend but released — even though they possessed photographs and descriptions of a nuclear power plant in Florida and the Trans-Alaska pipeline, a senior law enforcement official said Tuesday.
The incident in the Midwest apparently contributed to the new terror warning. The six men stopped by police were traveling in groups of three in two white sedans, said the senior law enforcement official, who requested anonymity.
In addition to the photographs and other suspicious material, they carried "box cutters and other equipment," the official said. They appeared to be from the Middle East and held Israeli passports.
They were let go after the Immigration and Naturalization Service determined the passports were valid and that the men had entered the United States legally, the official said.
A spokesman for the INS called the report unfounded. "We have absolutely no information at this point in time to substantiate that story," said INS spokesman Russ Bergeron.
Given what they had in their possession, this is an interesting case for civil liberties. Clearly there is no crime committed by having that material, but I wonder if someone can/should be held for much longer, perhaps 30 days, in such cases, instead of releasing them and then having to find them again.
About the INS comments, the key words in their denial are "at this point in time"
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