U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday that the United States is facing genuine terrorist threats from the al-Qaeda terrorist network, warning that terrorists might attempt to hijack airplanes in a Sept. 11-style attack (see GSN, July 29).

“The threat is a real threat,” Bush said.  “We don’t know when, where, what.  But we do know a couple of things.  We know that al-Qaeda tends to use methodologies that worked in the past,” he added.

Washington recently issued a security advisory to airlines.

“We’re focusing on the airline industry right now, and we’ve got reason to do so,” Bush said.  “But I’m confident that we will thwart the attempts,” he added.

U.S. officials were not convinced, however, that the current threat is credible.

“If we were certain this was real, I think you’d see us raise the alert level, as we’ve done in the past,” a senior law enforcement official said.  “We’re not at that point yet.  This could be more disinformation,” the official added.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said that his department was putting extra resources toward safeguarding the nation’s airlines (Philip Shenon, New York Times, July 31).

The information that led to the airline warning came from Ali Abd al-Rahman al Faqasi al-Ghamdi, an al-Qaeda operative who planned suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and is currently being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, CNN.com reported (CNN.com, July 31).

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