Madrid attacks help al Qaeda

WASHINGTON – Attorney General John Ashcroft’s warning that terrorists may strike the United States this summer was based on a stream of intelligence that indicated that al Qaeda is emboldened by its successful attacks in Madrid and deadly assaults in Iraq, three senior federal law enforcement officials who have reviewed the threat material said Thursday.

The content of the threat information behind Wednesday’s warning has not changed substantially since the railway bombings in Spain in March, and it has not yielded any plots against the United States, the officials said.

But terrorism analysts have detected that al Qaeda’s ranks, while depleted since the Sept. 11 attacks, have been re-energized by the recent strikes, the officials said.

As a result, there is fear that a string of high-profile events throughout the summer, including the national political conventions in Boston and New York, could pose irresistible targets to terrorists.

Concern for security at the political conventions has grown since the bombings in Spain, where the attacks were thought to have been timed to influence the outcome of national elections and to strike a blow against the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

Days after the March bombings, the conservative government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a supporter of the coalition, was defeated. Spanish troops have since been pulled from Iraq.

“In light of the March terrorist bombings in Madrid, we must be prepared for any plans to launch attacks before America’s elections this fall,” FBI Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday.

The timing of Ashcroft’s warning was meant in part to discourage or disrupt possible plans to target a high-profile event. Ashcroft issued his warning just before Saturday’s ceremony dedicating the World War II Memorial in Washington.

The officials also acknowledged that there was a desire to go public with their security concerns in response to criticism of government inaction before Sept. 11.

“We needed to do something preemptively,” one of the officials said. “We needed to get ahead of the curve on this one.”

Despite no evidence pointing to a specific attack in the United States, the officials said, the intelligence helped push Ashcroft and Mueller to appeal to the public to look out for suspected terrorists.

The appeal resulted in an immediate spike in leads from the public. The FBI received more than 800 calls to its tip line overnight Wednesday, compared with the 100 or 200 calls the bureau receives most days.