Americans urged to be vigilant on terror threat

THE US Government is urging Americans to be vigilant about suspicious activity after British police defused a bomb in London’s West End, but officials said they saw no potential terrorist threat in the United States ahead of next week’s Fourth of July holiday.

“At this point, I have seen no specific, credible information suggesting that this incident is connected to a threat to the homeland,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a statement.

“We have no plans at this time to change the US threat level,” he said. The current national threat level is yellow, or elevated, meaning there is a “significant risk” of terrorist attacks.

“We encourage the public to enjoy the upcoming holiday but ask, as always, that they be vigilant and report any suspicious activities to authorities,” Chertoff said.

President George W Bush was briefed on the incident by national security adviser Stephen Hadley in Maine, where the president is at his family’s home to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow and Monday.

“We commend the British security services and local officials for their action today. US officials are in contact with their UK counterparts and will continue to monitor the situation,” said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

The FBI distributed a bulletin to law enforcement officials around the country yesterday morning.

According to someone who had read the bulletin, it said that while July 4 festivities might make an attractive target for terrorists, authorities have no credible intelligence that such an attack is planned.

Officials said British authorities had found no link between the bomb and any terrorist group at least in the early hours of their investigation.

The London threat comes at a time when US counter-terrorism authorities are worried about terrorist activity in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where al-Qaida continues to have a presence, although officials said it was too early to know if there were links to extremist elements there.

In London, the US Embassy said in a statement to Americans that the “incident serves as a reminder to all Americans living and travelling abroad to remain aware of their surroundings at all times and be vigilant to suspicious activity.”

At the Pentagon, the matter was brought up at a regular early morning briefing among members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to make officials in Washington aware of the incident. A staff member said later that if there had been any request for Defense Department involvement in the investigation, he was not aware of it.