U.S. raises terror alert to code orange for transit

? The Bush administration raised the terror alert a notch to code orange for the nation’s mass transit systems on Thursday, responding to a spate of deadly rush-hour bus and subway bombings in London.

“Obviously we’re concerned about the possibility of a copycat attack,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The heightened alert will apply to “regional and inter-city passenger rail, subways and metropolitan bus systems,” Chertoff said at a news conference.

Security at foreign embassies in Washington was also increased, particularly around the British Embassy, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a strong condemnation of the attacks as the work of terrorists.

“The United States condemns the terrorist attacks in London this morning,” Rice said in a statement. She offered U.S. support to the British government and people and also ordered U.S. embassies around the world “to review their security posture,” McCormack said.

Raising the alert level to orange, or high, means local officials are urged to implement heightened security measures such as increasing police patrols, inspecting some cars and using bomb-sniffing dogs.

Chertoff said that U.S. authorities have “no specific credible evidence” pointing toward an attack in the United States. At the same time, he said, “we are also asking for increased vigilance” particularly in the U.S. transportation system.

He stressed that authorities are not asking Americans to avoid using their subways and bus systems in light of the worst attack in London since World War II. To the contrary, he said those who use mass transit should continue to do so.

About 29 million people take commuter trains and subways daily in the United States, with the New York City area accounting for about a third of the total, said Alan Pisarski, a Washington-based national transportation policy analyst. The next-largest systems are Chicago, Washington, Boston and Philadelphia. San Francisco has the largest system on the West Coast.

Chertoff told reporters he was not aware of any specific evidence that had foretold the attacks in London. Dozens of rush-hour commuters were killed and hundreds injured when four blasts went off in the city’s subway system and a bus.

“I think our transit systems are safe,” Chertoff said, adding that there have been vast improvements in the nearly four years since terrorists struck the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

The terror alert had not been raised in the United States since last August, when the Homeland Security Department increased it to orange – or high – for financial institutions in Washington, New York and Newark, N.J., in the run up to the November elections.

President Bush, in Scotland for a meeting of the Group of Eight leaders, conferred in a secure video conference with national security and homeland security officials in Washington.

“I instructed them to be in touch with local and state officials about the facts of what took place here and in London,” Bush told reporters from a summit of world leaders. Bush said he urged caution “as our folks start heading to work.”

Rice telephoned British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw offering assistance. She also visited the British Embassy in Washington to sign a condolence book.

“These were simply innocent people, many of them on their way to work on a beautiful Thursday,” she said at the embassy, adding: “Terrorists know that they cannot win. We remain resolved in our determination to root out this scourge against humanity and against civilization.”

David Manning, the British ambassador, said in reply, “This is a barbaric act, but we will not be shaken by it.”

“It may take some time to untangle this,” Rice said earlier in an interview with the BBC. “But whoever did this, it’s a part of clearly a concerted campaign to try and terrorize innocent people and it’s certainly not going to succeed.”

U.S. officials were trying to determine whether an al-Qaida cell’s claim of responsibility for the London attacks was credible. A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity because events were still unfolding said analysts were sifting through recent intelligence for evidence that other attacks might be in the works.

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that because the attacks were well-coordinated and appeared fairly sophisticated, they were consistent with al-Qaida’s methodology.

Recent intelligence indicated that London was considered a prime target for Islamic extremists, in part because al-Qaida was having difficulty getting people into the United States, the official said.

Security was stepped up in Washington, with bomb-sniffing dogs and armed police officers patrolling subways and buses. Police carrying rifles rode some trains, and passengers were being urged to report any suspicious activity. Security was also stepped up at the Pentagon and on Amtrak.

At the U.S. Capitol, public tours continued unabated, while armed Capitol Police officers patrolled outside, as they do every day.

Though Congress was in recess, lawmakers were quick to condemn the London attacks. Traveling in Africa, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., denounced them as “cowardly acts against innocent people.”

“The United States cannot be intimidated and our efforts will not be deterred,” Frist said in a statement. “We stand by the British people in their hour of need as they have done for us. My sympathies go out to the people of London.”

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said he and other leaders “stand in complete solidarity with Prime Minister Blair and President Bush, and all the leaders of the G-8 Summit, who pledged their commitment and resolve to fight and defeat this kind of extremism and hatred wherever it exists in the world.”