Homeland Security goes on special alert

As the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks nears, Homeland Security agents are on heightened alert for young Turkish Muslims who may be trying to enter the U.S. as part of an al-Qaida terrorist operation, WND has learned from counterterrorism officials and internal agency documents.

Meanwhile, agents are monitoring more than 20,000 suspected homegrown terrorists on the FBI's watchlist to prevent them from boarding commercial aircraft.

All of the individuals are American citizens or permanent legal residents "who have some relationship with terrorist activity," said Leonard Boyle, who heads the FBI's terrorism screening center in McLean, Va.

Homeland Security has programmed a computer system that screens inbound passengers for signs of terrorist activity to flag Turkish and other individuals whose passports show travel to Pakistan.

U.S. intelligence officials say jihadist websites indicate that hundreds of Turks have recently trained in al-Qaida camps in Pakistan, and may have sworn to carry out suicide operations against the West.

One website recently showed a martyrdom video of German-born Turk Saad Abu Furqan, who blew himself up outside a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

Al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan have been creating cells with the mission of attacking Western targets, including the U.S., officials say. Osama bin Laden's deputy appeared in a video this week with a rifle propped up behind him. Officials are analyzing the tape for possible coded messages.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has warned that al-Qaida is trying to exploit a security loophole created by the Visa Waiver Program to sneak terrorist muscle into the country.

Germans, Brits and other European passport holders are exempt from U.S. visa security checks under the program. Such travelers, who are entered into the system as "WT" or "WB," do not require a visa to enter the U.S.

At the same time, counterterrorism officials in New York are running down leads produced by last month's arrest and interrogation of al-Qaida operative Aafia Siddiqui, an MIT-educated microbiologist who fled to Pakistan after 9/11.

Siddiqui was found with a list of New York targets including the Empire State Building, Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty and the subway system. Notes in her possession also included information about a mass attack and referred to construction of dirty bombs.

In addition, a computer flash drive found on Siddiqui referred to "attacks" by certain "cells."

Siddiqui is close to a Saudi-American considered by the FBI to be "the next Mohamed Atta." Adnan al-Shukrijumah, aka "Jafar the Pilot," allegedly conspired with al-Qaida dirty bomber Jose Padilla. Al-Shukrijumah is still at large.

WND has learned that customs and border agents are also taking a closer look at female Muslim travelers, and handicapped Muslim travelers and their aides.

Officials say the internal heightened alert extends through at least October and the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and likely will continue on through Election Day.

The nation's public threat level remains at yellow, or "elevated." Officials say they have no specific credible information of a terrorist attack that would lead them to raise the threat level to orange, or "high," at this time.