Terrorist Target: Los Angeles

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HOMELAND INSECURITY
Muslims warned
to leave U.S. cities
Al-Qaida websites claim New York, Washington, Los Angeles are targets

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Posted: December 24, 2003
11:23 a.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Known al-Qaida affiliated websites are warning Muslims to leave New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles ahead of massive attacks it claims have been planned for those cities.

The statements, posted on sites such as Al-Lewa – Arabic for "The Banner" – are part of the alarming increase in "chatter" among terrorist operatives in recent weeks cited by Homeland Security officials for raising the terror threat level to high, or orange, reports the New York Post.

Officials told the paper the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency consider the messages "pieces of the overall puzzle."

Counterterrorism experts uncovered and translated statements boasting of an impending wave of terror that started Nov. 15 after the suicide bombings in Istanbul, Turkey.

"The next al-Qaida attacks will be most violent and will target the U.S.," read one claim translated by Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute.

"Our Muslim brothers in America, this is our final warning. We ask you, as fast as you can, to leave the following cities immediately: Washington, D.C., New York City, Los Angeles," read a second message posted Thursday by a group calling itself the Islamic Bayan Movement.

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WASHINGTON — Six commercial flights from Paris to Los Angeles were canceled Wednesday because of security concerns, French officials said.