Al-Qaeda In America: Target: America

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Democrats who received intelligence briefings quickly told their colleagues to hold their fire. During a conference call that House minority leader Nancy Pelosi held last Wednesday with Democratic Representatives scattered throughout the country, some were still grumbling about the politics of the Ridge press conference. Jane Harman, senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, quickly cut them off. Everyone should "take this threat very seriously," she told them. Indeed, members of Congress themselves may be in the terrorists' sights. Two days before Ridge issued his nationwide alert, an FBI official warned a congressional leader that he and other top legislative officials could be targeted by al-Qaeda in Washington or on their trips around the country.

RACE AGAINST TIME

At the sites identified by the terrorists, the security measures served as unmistakable signs that despite terrorism-alert fatigue among many Americans, the government feels it has little choice but to brace the public for another big attack. Bomb-sniffing dogs and explosives-detection teams reappeared in subways and outside public landmarks. In Washington, police set up barricades and checkpoints around the Capitol that could remain in place through Inauguration Day in January. Inside the secure war room at the Department of Homeland Security, officials from various agencies marked dozens of potential targets, ranging from the IMF and the World Bank to New York City's Federal Hall National Memorial, where George Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. President, and the Eldridge Street Synagogue in lower Manhattan--a site singled out, an official says, because information on the Gujrat discs reveals that al-Qaeda may try to target the Jewish community. One map shows heliport sites in Manhattan.

The unspoken reality, though, is that all the current scrambling may still not be enough to keep the U.S. safe. While intelligence experts believe the busts in Pakistan have helped provide new insights into bin Laden's network and the deadly activities it evidently had planned, the scope of the terrorist threat has only widened as officials learn more. Which plots might still be going forward and which have been foiled is frustratingly unclear. For all the progress against a deadly and elusive target--and progress it was--that is the nature of the war against al-Qaeda. Says Michael Mason, head of the FBI field office in Washington: "What we have over the U.S. is a net. At best, what we're doing is shrinking the mesh in the net. We're trying to kick down the door of the person who's going to drive the truck loaded with explosives. But can we do it in time?" --Reported by Melissa August, Brian Bennett, Timothy J. Burger, Michael Duffy, Viveca Novak, Douglas Waller, Michael Weisskopf and Adam Zagorin/Washington; Helen Gibson/London; Ghulam Hasnain/Gujrat; Syed Talat Hussain/Islamabad and Tim McGirk/Karachi