In what one FBI spokesman described as "almost an annual ritual," the bureau has obtained uncorroborated intelligence indicating al Qaeda would like to strike shopping malls during the holiday shopping season, two law enforcement sources said Thursday.
Those sources confirmed there is intelligence dating back to August that al Qaeda would like to attack malls in Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois.
The FBI's information is contained in an intelligence report and is intended for law enforcement and intelligence partners.
"There is no information to state this is a credible threat," FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said in a statement.
The information is being shared "for situational awareness," he said, and the FBI is reminding people to "remain vigilant and report suspicious activity to authorities."
A spokesman for the FBI's Chicago field office, Ross Rice, stressed the intelligence came "from an uncorroborated source and it's non-specific."
Rice said there was no mention of particular malls in Chicago and Los Angeles that might be the focus of a threat. And he added that "it's almost an annual ritual" for information to come to light about mall threats at holiday shopping time.
A senior counterterrorism official told CNN that the credibility of the information is very low but is being passed along out of an abundance of caution. And a senior government official described the intelligence as very raw and meant to help law enforcement partners to build on if they have other relevant information.
The intelligence information about the threat to shopping malls in Chicago and Los Angeles was first reported by ABC News on its Web site. |