Report of terrorists targeting Hawai'i dismissed

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i officials dismissed a published report that terrorists had specifically targeted nuclear submarines in Pearl Harbor in recent weeks.

Both Gov. Linda Lingle and the Hawai'i National Guard, which is charged with the defense of the state, said intelligence reports that al-Qaida-linked terrorists planned an attack were not credible. A story published yesterday in the Washington Times quotes anonymous sources who supposedly said the threats were included in briefings in the last two weeks.

"There is no credible threat that specifically talks about that, that anybody has information that the terrorist organization has actually planned this," said Maj. Charles Anthony, a spokesman for the Hawai'i National Guard.

"We receive updates all the time," he added. "Our policy is we will not discuss what is in those updates, including one week ago, two weeks or three weeks ago."

Conversely, any credible threat would prompt a public warning, he said. The Times reported terrorists planned to hijack airplanes from Honolulu International Airport and crash them into a ship or submarine docked at nearby Pearl Harbor.

"If I had believed at any time that there was any sort of a threat, regardless of how you want to describe it, we would have made adjustments in our alert status," Lingle said yesterday.

Even when the nation's threat level was raised last month to orange, Hawai'i officials kept the state's threat level at blue, a lower status, Lingle said. The national threat level has since been lowered a degree, to yellow. "We left it at blue because there was no credible threat to the people of Hawai'i and that remains today," she said.

Anthony said the Guard's F-15 fighter jets are prepared to defend the state against a terrorist attack.

"We always have aircraft on alert, ready to launch at a moment's notice," he said.

A spokesman for Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific, yesterday had no comment about the report.

Military bases on O'ahu today are at force protection level "bravo" or higher, meaning an increased and more predictable threat of terrorist activity exists.

Steps required during "bravo" include examining all mail for bombs and checks of visitors' hand-carried items.

Said Lingle: "I continue to feel very strongly that we are perhaps the safest place in the country, but also we have the most integrated approach to homeland security."

Advertiser staff writers Lynda Arakawa and Gordon Y.K. Pang contributed to this report.