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Some officials at the Department of Homeland Security said they felt blindsided by Ashcroft's dire warning, though a senior Administration official says Ridge "was in the room when the decision was made" to deliver the announcement. But they were so upset with what they viewed as the alarmist tone of the information--which had leaked out in an Associated Press story the night before--that they got the White House to call and complain to the Justice Department. "There was a concern within the intelligence community about the characterization of the information," says a federal official involved in the discussions. "If you don't know who, what, where and when, how do you get to 90%?" FBI and intelligence officials defended the warning, saying there has been a striking repetition from many diverse sources--some of them better and more insistent than ever--that something big is imminent. In an effort to regain the appearance of unity, Ashcroft and Ridge issued a public statement saying "We are working together." That terrorism is a relentless threat was driven home the next day when gunmen attacked a business complex and two residential compounds of expatriate oil workers in the Saudi city of Khobar, killing at least a dozen foreigners and Saudis and taking many hostages.
The fact that six of the seven wanted individuals named by Ashcroft and Mueller had previously been identified as suspects brought criticism that the Justice Department was recycling old news. But what the two men meant to do, their aides say, was underscore the point that al-Qaeda is likely to rely on operatives who can move easily into and around the U.S. Apart from Gadahn, they highlighted two people with Canadian passports and two others who had spent years in the U.S. The two remaining suspects have been indicted for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Ashcroft and Mueller made no effort to link the seven to intelligence about a coming attack, and Mueller noted there was no evidence that any of the seven were working in concert. FBI counterterrorism experts, in fact, believe that for any new plot, al-Qaeda would pick "clean" operators rather than people whose pictures are posted on the FBI website. But officials hope some of the seven may be found somewhere in the world and point the way to others yet unidentified.