WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government raised the terror alert level to
orange, indicating there is a high risk of terrorist attack.
The alert was raised to the second-highest level after President
Bush addressed the nation Monday night and said the U.S. was
prepared to go to war with Iraq if that country's leadership does
not step down and leave the country.
In raising the alert level, the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) issued a statement saying "the Intelligence Community
believes that terrorists will attempt multiple attacks against U.S.
and Coalition targets worldwide in the event of a U.S-led military
campaign against [Iraqi leader] Saddam Hussein." Those targets
included so called "soft targets" such as commercial airplanes,
hotels and resorts.
"A large volume of reporting across a range of sources, some of
which are highly reliable, indicates that Al-Qaida probably would
attempt to launch terrorist attacks against U.S. interests claiming
they were defending Muslims or the "Iraqi people" rather than
Saddam Hussein's regime," the DHS said.
The Air Transport Association issued a report recently that
estimated that international advance bookings fell more than 20%
the last time the threat level was raised from yellow, which
denotes a "significant" threat, to orange.
The threat level had reverted to yellow on Feb. 27 and had
remained there until the president's speech.