The government quietly streng-thened its anti-terrorism vigilance at midnight last night in response to warnings issued by the US.
According to a Cabinet official who asked not to be named, the decision was ordered by Premier Yu Shyi-kun, who chairs the Cabinet's ad hoc anti-terrorism task force. The increased anti-terror vigilance will last for 10 days, the official said.
"US intelligence has showed that there was a high risk that militants might launch attacks around the holidays in the US that could be bigger than those of Sept. 11, 2001," the official said.
"The US State Department has repeated a worldwide warning of a potential threat to foreign countries and Americans overseas," the official said.
The US government raised its terror alert to the second highest level on Sunday after an al-Jazeera television broadcast an audio tape last Friday purportedly showing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, saying the terrorist group would target Americans everywhere, including the US.
US officials attributed the warning to "credible sources," and ordered the color-coded alert system raised to orange -- denoting "a high risk" of terrorist attacks -- from yellow, which the Department of Homeland Security defines as "a significant" or "elevated" risk of terrorist attacks.
It is the fifth time that the orange alert has been activated since the system was instituted in March last year.
The warning came despite White House assurances that many of al-Qaeda's operations had been disrupted and that the occupation of Iraq was making the world safer.
Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
He did not say what this might involve.
"The premier will also inspect certain facilities before the New Year," he said, adding that, to avoid public panic, no official announcement had been made about the government's increased anti-terror vigilance.
Although there was no evidence that any individual terrorist or terrorist group was in Taiwan or planning an attack here, or that irregular money transfers had taken place, Lin said that various intelligence channels had indicated that terrorists might strike overseas during the holiday period.
An official at the National Fire Administration who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the Cabinet activated its anti-terrorism mechanism about a month ago when a similar warning was issued by the US government.
"The terror alert has not been lifted since then," he said, adding that the nation's terror alert system was more vaguely defined than that of the US.
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