NBC, MSNBC and news services

Updated: 8:57 p.m. ET Dec. 23, 2003

New intelligence information indicates that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy personally approved the suspected terrorist attack plan that led the government to raise the nation's terror threat assessment this week, U.S. officials told NBC News on Tuesday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. intelligence agencies had gathered detailed information about the plan, in which they said al-Qaida operatives would hijack foreign airliners and fly them into targets in the United States. In some instances, the intelligence is so detailed as to include specific flight numbers, they said.  The Defense Department said Tuesday that it was broadening air patrols throughout the country. Security forces have put several U.S. airports under intense scrutiny, the U.S. officials told NBC's Jim Miklaszewski, specifically naming Newark International Airport in New Jersey.

Bin Laden, al-Zawahiri may be behind plan

The U.S. officials said the new intelligence indicated that bin Laden himself had approved the most recent plan for major attacks, along with Ayman al-Zawahiri, his deputy.

U.S. officials and terrorism experts said that while some of the potential targets might seem unusual, there was a method to al-Qaida’s plot.  For example, the officials said, al-Qaida seems particularly interested in Tappahannock, Va., a tiny town of 2,016 people with no military base or major infrastructure. Such an attack would be intended to generate widespread fear that no one was safe, even in small rural towns, they said. “Just remember that al-Qaida is not just looking to kill as many Americans as possible. They’re looking to seriously hurt our nation’s economy,” terrorism specialist Roger Cressey, former chief of staff of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, said in an interview.  In addition to big cities like New York and Los Angeles, al-Qaida has targeted Las Vegas, the officials said, because of its economic value as the nation's No. 2 vacation destination and as home to large conventions and trade shows beginning next month.  Other possible targets include important infrastructure facilities, such as nuclear power plants and dams. The officials mentioned oil transport facilities at Valdez, Alaska, as a particularly likely target.

Response to serious threat

The new intelligence adds details to information about the al-Qaida plot first reported Monday by NBC News, which quoted U.S. officials as saying the terrorist threat assessment was raised over the weekend because of indications that al-Qaida operatives may now be fully trained and licensed pilots for some foreign airlines, ideally positioning them to carry out suicide attacks.  The officials said the threat alert would remain at “orange,” or high, through the end of January, which they said was an indication of its seriousness.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld underscored that message Tuesday at a news briefing at the Pentagon.

“Any time you are asked to do things that you do not normally do at a lower threat level, it costs money and it costs stress,” he said. “… People don’t do that unless it’s a serious situation.”

Guarded urgency

Although President Bush urged people this week to “go about their lives,” other government officials conveyed a sense of guarded urgency about the latest terror threats, which they described as the most serious since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington.  “We've seen the threat level escalated to level orange, and we've done that because we've seen some reporting that leads us to believe it's necessary,” Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday night in remarks to U.S. troops at McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, Wash.   “It’s a reminder to all Americans that ... we've made major progress against these guys, but they're still out there. They’re still doing everything they can to acquire ever deadlier weapons to use against us.”  Rumsfeld said the government acted appropriately in raising the threat assessment given the volume and nature of intelligence.

Questions from Congress

As a result of the change in threat level, all federal departments and agencies were putting action plans in place and stepping up security at airports, border crossings and ports, said Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who also urged Americans on Monday not to disrupt their holiday plans. “If you’ve got travel plans, travel,” he said.  But despite such marked improvements in security, some in Congress still saw holes that could be exploited.  The color-coded system was last raised to orange May 5. Authorities at the time reported receiving general intelligence that pointed to possible terror attacks in the United States related to bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco that killed dozens of people. The threat level was returned to yellow 11 days later.  The lowest two levels of the alert system — “green” and “blue” — and the highest — “red,” indicating an imminent threat — have not been used since the system was put in place in March 2002.

NBC's Jim Miklaszewski, MSNBC.com's Alex Johnson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.