A United Airlines plane lands at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey. The State Department issued a worldwide travel alert following a month of deadly terrorist attacks around the globe and as millions are set to hit the roads and airways ahead of Thanksgiving.
The Wall Street Journal
By Damian Paletta
Updated November 23, 2015 7:19 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON—The State Department on Monday issued a world-wide travel alert following a month of deadly terrorist attacks on three continents that have killed hundreds of people, including Americans.
The alert, the first in nearly a year, expires on Feb. 24. It comes during the busiest U.S. travel week of the year, with millions of Americans hitting the roads and airways for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The State Department, in its warning, said terror groups including Islamic State and Boko Haram “continue to plan terrorist attacks in multiple regions. These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics, using conventional and nonconventional weapons and targeting both official and private interests.”
The State Department often issues travel warnings, but alerts are more uncommon, reserved for short-term events, whereas warnings can be indefinite and resulting from general instability.
Nonetheless, an alert doesn’t mean a terror attack is imminent. It more likely reflects recent events—such as the spate of terror attacks—and the need for heightened caution.
A top concern for many intelligence officials is the risk posed by Islamic State militants who traveled to fight and train in Syria and Iraq and then returned to their home countries in Europe or elsewhere.
“Additionally, there is a continuing threat from unaffiliated persons planning attacks inspired by major terrorist organizations but conducted on an individual basis,” the alert said.
It said terror attacks in the past have targeted sporting events, theaters, markets, airports and airplanes.
Following the 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S., the government has struggled at times to warn citizens of the dangers of possible threats. The Department of Homeland Security for a time used a color-coded warning system, but that system was eventually scrapped.
The State Department last issued a world-wide travel alert in December 2014, following a terror attack in Australia. The terror attack in Paris that targeted the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine came just a few weeks later.
In the past several months, Islamic State-aligned militants are believed to have carried out multiple terror attacks in France, Egypt, Turkey and Lebanon. A separate attack in Mali on Friday, believed to have been carried out by a group that claims ties to al Qaeda, left more than 30 dead. Combined, the attacks have killed more than 400 people, including at least two Americans.
U.S. officials have stressed in recent days that they haven’t detected imminent plans by terror groups to carry out a Paris-style terror attack on U.S. soil, but police and national-security officials have been operating on heightened alert status.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Monday addressed the elevated risk and acknowledged “anxiety across our country.”
“As we approach the holiday season, it is important to note that, at present, we know of no credible and specific intelligence indicating a Paris-like plot on the U.S. homeland,” he wrote on the agency’s website. “But, the public should know that those of us in national security, homeland security, and law enforcement are working overtime to monitor threats, continually evaluate our security posture, and guard the homeland.”
Original article can be found here: http://www.wsj.com
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