The U.S. government urged Americans to be alert but go on with holiday travel and shopping and let security officials deal with an al Qaeda attack threat described as the biggest since Sept. 11, 2001. “American citizens need to go about their lives but as they do so, they need to know that governments at all levels are working as hard as we possibly can to protect the American citizens,” President Bush said Monday. A day after increasing the national threat alert status, Bush convened his Homeland Security Council to review steps taken to increase security at airports, ports, bridges, nuclear plants and other possible targets of attacks. Full Story