Homeland Security Update
On the home front in the war on terror, the Bush administration moved this week to tighten security at the nation's 103 nuclear power plants.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ordered more rigorous employee screening and guard training, as well as the stopping of any vehicles on approach roads to nuclear power plants.
"The commission has decided to issue orders to require prudent interim compensatory measures, because the generalized high-level threat environment has persisted longer than expected," said the NRC, in a statement.
Separately, the Bush administration is out with an update on the terror alert it issued on Monday, at that time warning that an attack on the U.S. or a U.S.-related target abroad could be planned as early as Feb. 12.
Federal officials now say six of the men named in the FBI terrorism alert are in custody in Yemen and elsewhere and have been removed from the list of those who are still being sought.
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The warning identified the possible ringleader as Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei, a Yemeni citizen born in 1979 in Saudi Arabia. A U.S. official said al-Rabeei is believed to have links to al-Qaida but is not believed to have been involved in the attack against the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden in October 2000 that killed 17 U.S. sailors.
The FBI has since confirmed that six of the men are in custody - most in Yemen and at least one outside the Middle East, the officials said Thursday.
"Given the urgency of information indicating the possible attack within 24 hours, an alert was issued. Today, we have received information that at least six possible associates of al-Rabeei may be in custody in the Middle East or elsewhere," FBI spokesman John Collingwood said.
The FBI removed the men's pictures and names from the alert. They are:
Shuhour Abdullah Mukbil al-Sabri
The FBI continues a worldwide manhunt for the 11 others, including al-Rabeei.
On Wednesday, a man related to one of the men on the FBI list accidentally blew himself up with a hand grenade after being cornered by security forces in a suburb of the Yemeni capital of San'a. Officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Sameer Mohammed Ahmed al-Hada was also a brother-in-law of one of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
Meanwhile Thursday, Iranian authorities arrested a multinational group of some 150 people and are questioning them about possible links to the Taliban or al-Qaida. The Islamic Republic News Agency report said those arrested had entered Iran from Pakistan. Many had spent time in Afghanistan at some stage before arriving in Iran, it said.
The report said the information was provided by an unidentified source. The detainees are said to include European and African nationals who were carrying passports from countries such as France, Britain, Belgium, Spain and The Netherlands.
During questioning thus far, the report said, none of the detainees has been connected to either the Taliban or al-Qaida.
The Associated Press was unable to reach Iranian officials for comment.
The State Department had no independent information on the subject, an official said, partly because there is no U.S. diplomatic presence in Iran.
CIA Director George J. Tenet said last week that Tehran has failed "to move decisively against al-Qaida members who have relocated to Iran from Afghanistan."
The U.S. administration also has complained that Iran, a neighbor of Afghanistan, has armed and financed fighters to destabilize the government of interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai.
Iran has denied those charges.
At the same time, the administration also has taken note of positive actions that Iran has taken toward Afghanistan.
As examples, U.S. officials have cited the support Iran provided for the diplomatic process that led to the installation of the interim government.
They also have praised an Iranian pledge to provide $550 million in reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan over five years.
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