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Posted on 09/30/2001 4:55:53 AM PDT by sarcasm

WASHINGTON - A State Department "worldwide caution" for Americans was issued Friday after it was discovered that Islamic extremists in nine countries might be preparing to kidnap or kill American and British civilians in response to expected U.S. retaliatory strikes against terrorists.

The boldest plot, U.S. intelligence officials said yesterday, was uncovered by Indonesian authorities who reported that a radical Muslim group planned to invade two upscale neighborhoods in the capital, Jakarta, and seize large numbers of Americans and Britons as hostages if the United States or Britain attacked Afghanistan.

The officials, who requested anonymity, told the Inquirer Washington Bureau that the alert issued by the State Department was based on reports from the CIA, the National Security Agency, and foreign intelligence services.

According to the reports, suspected allies of accused terrorist leader Osama bin Laden have been casing hotels favored by Westerners. In some cases, officials said, desk clerks and other hotel employees were asked whether Americans were registered there.

Plans for possible attacks against Americans and other Westerners also were reported in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, the former Soviet republic of Georgia, and Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. military headquarters in the Persian Gulf, the officials said.

With more than 300 aircraft, 30 warships and nearly 30,000 troops now focused on Afghanistan, the United States is ready to begin military action against bin Laden and his Afghan hosts as soon as President Bush decides to act, according to senior U.S. officials. The United States has identified bin Laden as the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by hijacked jetliners, in which more than 6,000 people were killed. He has been protected by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers since 1996.

The Inquirer Washington Bureau also learned yesterday that the United States is backing a fledgling political coalition to attract disaffected Afghans - especially the country's few remaining professional military officers.

"Our enemies here are Osama bin Laden and any Afghans who are protecting him," said one U.S. official, who asked not to be identified. "We're not looking to attack Afghanistan. Afghanistan would be better off without bin Laden and his fellow travelers."

The effort centers on an attempt by former Afghan King Mohammed Zahir Shah, 86, to convene an assembly of anti-Taliban political, religious and military leaders from all of Afghanistan's ethnic communities, U.S. officials said.

Zahir, who has lived in exile outside Rome since being ousted in 1973, has been meeting with foreign diplomats in a bid to build international support for his effort.

Although the Bush administration is supporting efforts to create a broad-based political opposition to the Taliban, it does not intend to become embroiled in Afghan's often tumultuous and sometimes bloody internal politics, a senior administration official said.

"We don't care who's in the government in Kabul so long as they represent all Afghanis and don't support terrorists," the official said.

According to a White House memo prepared by the National Security Council staff with input from the State and Defense departments: "The Taliban do not represent the Afghan people, who never elected or chose the Taliban faction. We do not want to choose who rules Afghanistan, but we will assist those who seek a peaceful, economically developing Afghanistan free of terrorism."

The United States' immediate goal in Afghanistan, the memo said, is to "eradicate the terrorism that led to the strikes that killed the citizens of 78 countries on September 11."

President Bush, spending the weekend at Camp David with top advisers, again vowed to track down terrorists around the world.

"Our war on terror will be much broader than the battlefields and beachheads of the past," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "This war will be fought wherever terrorists hide, or run, or plan.

"Some victories will be won outside of public view, in tragedies avoided and threats eliminated. Other victories will be clear to all."

Still, many officials braced for a terrorist follow-up attack on American interests and tried to prepare for it.

On Friday, the State Department issued its "worldwide caution" to Americans overseas. Without giving details, it mentioned threatening rhetoric and the potential of further strikes in the aftermath of the attacks.

"In this environment of increased tension and concern, the department urges Americans to review their circumstances carefully and to take any measures they deem necessary to ensure their personal safety," the State Department announced.

It was the first such advisory from the department since the Sept. 11 attacks.

On Thursday, the State Department issued a special travel warning for Americans in Indonesia.

"While the government of Indonesia has condemned these terrorist attacks, some radical Indonesian groups have attempted to attack U.S. citizens and have threatened to attack U.S. facilities and expel American citizens from Indonesia in the event of a U.S. military action," the advisory said.

"Americans who despite this warning remain in or visit Indonesia should exercise maximum caution and take prudent measures to maintain their security."

The State Department also said the U.S. Embassy in the West African nation of Niger received reports of "anti-American threats and sentiments" in the capital, Niamey, and the city of Maradi. It said the threats also were linked to possible U.S. military action, and it encouraged all Americans in Niger to maintain heightened security.

Nonessential U.S. government employees have been removed from four U.S. diplomatic missions in Pakistan, two in Indonesia and one each in Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Yemen, the State Department said.

In other developments yesterday:

Former President Bill Clinton and his onetime rival, Bob Dole, launched a nationwide effort to raise $100 million in scholarships for the children of those killed or disabled in the terrorist attacks. Clinton said the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund would be available to meet the educational needs of the children of the victims for years to come.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said the federal government maintains eight secret staging areas ready to respond to a biological or chemical attack, and one of those depots ferried 50 tons of supplies to New York on Sept. 11.

Speaking in an interview to be broadcast tonight on CBS's 60 Minutes, Thompson said nine tractor-trailers filled with 50 tons of vaccines, antibiotics, gas masks and ventilators - also known as "push packages" - were dispatched to New York.

The trucks returned to their staging areas after experts determined that the attack did not involve biological or chemical agents.

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