Revelations that a computer disk found in Iraq had diagrams and photographs of some US schools have prompted school officials in several states to review security procedures and assure anxious parents that they are doing all they can to protect their children.
While Homeland Security and FBI officials insisted on Friday that they did not believe the material found in Iraq represented a serious threat, some school officials con-ceded that news of the discovery had unnerved parents already rattled by the school siege in Beslan, Russia, five weeks ago in which 330 people died, 172 of them children.
In a letter sent on Friday to parents in San Diego, one of several school districts mentioned on the computer disk, school officials acknowledged that "potential terrorist threats" had led to "increased anxiety in our community about the safety and security of our schools."
But the letter went on to say that law enforcement agencies had concluded that "there is no specific threat to our schools and students here in San Diego."
Other school districts issued similar statements.
US military officials said the disk, discovered in Iraq in July, had photographs and information about schools in California, New Jersey, Florida, Georgia, Michigan and Oregon, much of it apparently downloaded from readily available US government Web sites.
The person found with the disk was an Iraqi national with ties to the Baath Party, which ruled Iraq under former president Saddam Hussein, according to a senior official quoted on Friday by The Associated Press. Some newspaper reports said the man had connections to terrorism and the insurgency that is fighting US coalition forces in Iraq, but US officials said on Friday that they have not established that he had any terrorist connections. The officials said the man may have been downloading the information as part of a civil redevelopment pro-ject for Iraqi schools.
The computer disk found in Iraq included lists of schools and transportation for students in Lee County, Florida, prompting officials there to send a letter on Friday to 70 school principals asking them to review their security plans. The Lee County school superintendent, James Browder, said he was informed of the disk by FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials.
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