White House Maintains Yellow Alert
By Scott Lindlaw
Associated Press Writer
Monday, April 1, 2002; 4:45 PM
WASHINGTON –– The Bush administration is considering whether Middle East violence heightens the risk of terrorism on U.S. soil, but is keeping the nationwide alert status at "yellow" for now, officials said Monday.
There are "no indications we need to raise the homeland security alert system level from yellow to orange," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for homeland security chief Tom Ridge.
Last month, Ridge unveiled a system that ranks threats by colors, starting with green at the bottom and followed by blue, yellow, orange and red as perceived dangers intensify. Ridge announced a "yellow" alert status, and it has remained there.
"Until there is information that the intelligence experts receive and analyze that indicates we need to raise the threat level, there is not a reason to raise it," Johndroe said.
Suicide bombers have struck Israel six times in six days, and President Bush has appeared supportive of the Israeli military siege against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, even though he urged Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday to "keep a pathway to peace open."
The United States is Israel's strongest ally, and sends that nation $2.7 billion a year in aid, much of which goes to military hardware like that being used in their West Bank offensive this week.
Some analysts suggest that the growing Mideast violence, and the tactic of suicide bombings, could spread to other Arab or Islamic extremists with grudges against the United States.
"The fear is that the suicide bombings (now used by Palestinians) could become a method that other groups start to use," said Shibley Telhami, a Mideast analyst at the Brookings Institution.
Even so, U.S. intelligence does not have any evidence that the Islamic militant groups Hamas or Hezbollah are specifically targeting U.S. interests or people at this time, said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official also noted concerns that Americans overseas could simply be caught in the crossfire given all the violence in Israel and Palestinian-controlled areas.
Though the United States has backed Israel for generations, there is little history of Palestinians striking directly against Americans, here or abroad.
In 1973, Palestinian gunmen killed Ambassador Cleo Noel and a charge d'affaires at the U.S. embassy in Sudan.
The nation's deadliest domestic terrorism attack before Sept. 11 was Timothy McVeigh's 1995 bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds of others. McVeigh was an American, but the attack, carried out with a truck full of explosives, also showed how easily a terrorist could strike.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer sidestepped questions Monday about whether the government is concerned about suicide bombings spreading to the United States.
Bush "believes that terrorism is terrorism is terrorism, and the United States is committed to stopping it, wherever it threatens America's interests," Fleischer said.
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