9486 in the collection  

Beware of Terrorists with Almanacs

Beware of terrorists with almanacs
FBI warns reference books may be innocent or 'may point to possible' plots

By AP

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is warning police across the United States to be on the alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books covering everything from abbreviations to weather trends could be used for terrorist planning.

In a bulletin sent Christmas Eve to about 18,000 police organizations, the FBI said terrorists may use almanacs "to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning."

It urged officers to watch during searches, traffic stops and other investigations for anyone carrying almanacs, especially if the books are annotated in suspicious ways.

"The practice of researching potential targets is consistent with known methods of al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations that seek to maximize the likelihood of operational success through careful planning," the FBI wrote.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the bulletin this week and verified its authenticity.

"For local law enforcement, it's just to help give them one more piece of information to raise their suspicions," said David Heyman, a terrorism expert for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"It helps make sure one more bad guy doesn't get away from a traffic stop, maybe gives police a little bit more reason to follow up on this."

The FBI noted that use of almanacs or maps may be innocent, "the product of legitimate recreational or commercial activities."

But it warned that when combined with suspicious behaviour - such as apparent surveillance - a person with an almanac "may point to possible terrorist planning."

"I don't think anyone would consider us a harmful entity," said Kevin Seabrooke, senior editor of The World Almanac.

He said the reference book includes about a dozen pages out of its 1,000-page total listing the world's tallest buildings and bridges but includes no diagrams or architectural schematics. "It's stuff that's widely available on the Internet," he said.

The publisher for The Old Farmers Almanac said yesterday terrorists would probably find statistical reference books more useful than the collection of Americana in his famous publication of weather predictions and witticisms.

"While we doubt that our editorial content would be of particular interest to people who would wish to do us harm, we will certainly co-operate to the fullest with national authorities at any level they deem appropriate," publisher John Pierce said.

— Associated Press
Beware of terrorists with almanacs
Edmonton Sun
2003-12-30
http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonNews/es.es-12-30-0048.html

---

INDEX OF OUTRAGES

Pages: 380   
[1] 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>    Last >>