Al Qaida prisoners told of threat

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, has said the information that terrorists were considering attacks against banks in north eastern United States was the result of information the intelligence community received from interviews with captured al Qaida suspects from Afghanistan.

The FBI said tonight that the warning was unsubstantiated.

Government officials said the threat came from the al Qaida terror network.

Authorities cautioned that they had no information about a specific plot or threats to any specific financial institution, but a US law enforcement source said authorities feared a suicide attack.

‘‘It’s important to note that there is no specific threat to any specific institution,’’ Attorney General John Ashcroft said.

‘‘We are not changing our national threat level. We are not asking the banks to close, nor urging people to stay away from banks.’’

The information was given to the FBI which, along with the Homeland Security Office at the White House, decided to remind financial institutions of the need to be vigilant.

Ashcroft acknowledged that the information ‘‘may or may not be reliable’’.

The attorney general defended issuing the warning even without a specific threat.

‘‘Our policy is to share information with appropriate authorities and the American public when we have threat information that merits their attention,’’ Ashcroft said.

‘‘We believe that this information sharing disrupts and prevents terrorist activity.’’

The FBI warning went to banks and law enforcement agencies in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and the District of Columbia.

The FBI said the decision to issue the warning came after discussions among the Justice Department, Office of Homeland Security and the Treasury.

It follows a bomb threat earlier in the week against an unspecified national bank in Washington.

Many bank branches shut down but there was no explosion. Police later said the threat was a prank by a 13-year-old Dutch boy.

Today’s warning came on the seventh anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City.

The FBI announcement came a few hours after the Treasury blocked financial assets belonging to a Pakistan-based group and nine people believed to have provided financial support to al Qaida, the terror network operated by Osama bin Laden.