Authorities in Hawaii dismissed a published report on Monday that Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network planned to attack the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, saying there was no credible threat. The Washington Times said the group planned to use hijacked airliners in the attack and that potential targets included nuclear-powered submarines and ships. Intelligence reports about the threat to the naval base were sent to senior U.S. officials in the past two weeks and coincided with reports that al Qaeda was planning a major attack, the newspaper reported. “There was a single report from an unverified, unreliable source that mentioned Pearl Harbor, but it was not in any way connected to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and it was held in very low credibility even when at the time it first came in,” a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence report told Reuters. Mohammed, an al Qaeda leader who allegedly masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was captured in Pakistan on Saturday. “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 on our alert status,” Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle said at a news conference. Maj. Charles Anthony, a spokesman for the Hawaii National Guard, said the public would have been warned if officials believed Pearl Harbor was somehow at risk. Full Story
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