Combat Air Patrols to Fly over American Cities Including New York, Washington

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, July 04, 2002

Combat Air Patrols to Fly over American Cities Including New York, Washington

The White House said on Wednesday that the US government knows no specific terrorist threat on July 4, but the administration will step up security for the Independence Day celebrations.

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The White House said on Wednesday that the US government knows no specific terrorist threat on July 4, but the administration will step up security for the Independence Day celebrations.

Combat air patrols will fly over several American cities including New York and Washington and randomly throughout the nation, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Fleischer said that a special White House coordination center will roughly double its staffing to monitor more than 2,000 medium-and large-sized Independence Day events.

Under the command of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, the coordination center has already established lines of communicationto be in instant contact with officials at nearly 2,100 July Fourth celebration events.

Fleischer called these moves "precautionary," reiterating that the United States does not have any specific or credible information that a July 4 terrorists attack is in the work.

"There is nothing specific about anything that we are aware of," Fleischer said. "There is just a general level of concern that we've seen on other larger gatherings. When the American people gather in large numbers, it can become something of a target for people who want to do us harm."

In the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s weekly intelligence bulletin, dated Wednesday and sent out to state and local law enforcement offices, the FBI said the U.S. government has no "credible threats about specific attacks," according to senior administration officials.

However, the FBI urged law enforcement agencies to "be vigilantand report any suspicious activity" to the agency.

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