WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2002 — The United States is at high risk of terrorist attack, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft warned Tuesday.
  New, credible information, coupled with intelligence analysis of the situation, has led U.S. officials to raise the nation's threat level to Orange, he said at a Justice Department news briefing. Only the Red threat level is higher in the five-tier Homeland Security Advisory System.
  "The U.S. intelligence community has received information based on debriefings of a senior al Qaeda operative of possible terrorist attacks timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States," Ashcroft said.
   U.S. officials are not recommending canceling commemorative events nor do they recommend that people change domestic travel plans or that the federal work force not report for duty.
   "We are not making those recommendations," Ashcroft stressed. "We ask that Americans both at home and abroad mark the anniversary of last year's savage attacks with a heightened awareness of their environment and the activities occurring around them. This call is based on specific intelligence that heightened awareness and readiness deters terrorism.
   The information indicates that al Qaeda cells have been set up in several South Asian countries to conduct car bombings and other attacks on U.S. facilities. The cells have been accumulating explosives since about January, he said.
   Intelligence also indicates that one or more people in the Middle East are preparing for a suicide attack or attacks against U.S. interests. The most likely targets, Ashcroft said, are "the transportation and energy sectors and facilities or gatherings that would be recognized worldwide as symbols of American power or security," particularly U.S. military facilities, embassies and national monuments. Story