December 28, 1999
Web posted at: 6:48 p.m. EST (2348 GMT)

From CNN's Wolf Blitzer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal authorities have tightened security at home and at U.S. embassies and missions abroad largely as a result of three separate sources of information pointing to possible anti-American terrorist operations by Osama bin Laden and other suspected terrorist groups.

First and perhaps most important is the specific information that has resulted from the arrest of 13 suspected terrorists in Jordan earlier this month. A senior U.S. official said the group was planning "several attacks" on Americans in Jordan over the New Year's holiday.

The alleged mastermind of the cell, Khalil al-Deek, was arrested in Pakistan and extradited to Jordan. He is believed to be directly associated with bin Laden's group.

Well-placed U.S. officials told CNN on Tuesday that several of the suspects told Jordanian authorities of specific terrorist operations they were plotting against other U.S. targets in the Middle East.

"What they are saying," says one U.S. official, "gives people reason to be concerned."

The official declined to be specific about the nature of the targets, other than to say they were in the Middle East, at locations where Americans would likely assemble around the New Year.

A second factor was the arrest in Washington state earlier this month of Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian man suspected of having ties to individuals in Canada with links to bin Laden. Ressam was allegedly attempting to bring bomb-making equipment into the United States.

Another Algerian man, Abdelmajed Dahoumane, was believed to have been traveling with Ressam and remains at large.

The third source has been numerous reports -- from friendly international intelligence services and from U.S. intelligence sources abroad -- of suspected terrorist plots.

"There's so much of it and from such a variety of sources," one U.S. official told CNN, "that we have to take all this very seriously."

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