FBI has issued a possible attack threat for Las Vegas for the July 4 holiday

WASHINGTON , June 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. authorities warned on Saturday, June 22, that terrorists could launch a fuel tanker attack on U.S. interests at home and abroad, notably Jewish targets, although officials reportedly were backing away from the reports that the city of Las Vegas was a prime target, news agencies reported.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents have "received uncorroborated information that terrorists may be interested in using fuel tanker trucks for attacks against U.S. interests in the United States or overseas, notably against Jewish schools and synagogues," FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Emphasizing that most of the information was uncorroborated or unconfirmed, another spokesman, Bill Carter, said the warning had nevertheless been passed on to law enforcement agencies "out of an abundance of caution."

Despite the alleged threat, Jewish organizations urged congregations to attend their synagogues as usual on the Jewish Sabbath, which runs from sunset Friday to the same time Saturday.

"If synagogues are open, they should remain open," said Myrna Shinbaum, a spokeswoman for the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group.

She said the organization was advising synagogues to have members call 911 if they spotted fuel trucks approaching.

On Friday, a Lebanese-American businessman told the FBI he intercepted a cell phone conversation in Arabic last week suggesting that an attack on Las Vegas , Nevada , is in the works for the July 4 Independence Day holiday. 

"We're taking that seriously. We have opened up an investigation," Jule Miller, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, told AFP. 

On June 15, Las Vegas resident Michael Hamdan was in his car, dialing his home number on his cell phone to let his wife know he was on his way, when he accidentally overheard the conversation. 

"I dialed the number and I pressed 'send.' It seemed that the call did not get through. So I was going to hang up when I heard somebody talking in Arabic," Hamdan told CNN television Friday. "It seems another line crossed my line." 

Hamdan, who was born in Lebanon and speaks Arabic, said the conversation was among a group of men on one end and a single man on the other, and that they spoke Arabic with an accent from the Gulf area. 

He said an anonymous voice declared: "We are here in the city of corruption, the city of prostitution and gambling, the city of the unbelievers, and they are talking about freedom. We are going to hit them on the day of freedom." 

The men were already in Las Vegas , he said, suggesting that the "day of freedom" they spoke of was the July 4 Independence Day holiday. 

On the other end of the line, he said, another person responded merely with the word "Taieb" in Arabic, meaning "OK," or "I understand." 

Hamdan said the call lasted about 90 seconds before the line went dead, reports news agencies. 

"It's unbelievable. I felt shocked," he said, noting that he informed the FBI of what happened the following day. 

"I was shocked. I was sweating. I felt cold I was really in a disbelief state about what I heard," Hamdan said in an interview with CBS News' "The Early Show." 

Several local and national television stations have interviewed Hamdan, a naturalized U.S. citizen who has been living in the United States since 1976, since the incident. 

Still, the FBI is taking a somewhat cautious approach to the news. 

"We can't make an evaluation as of yet. It's too early in the investigation," said Daron Borst, a spokesman for the FBI's Las Vegas office. 

"We'll need to talk to other people as well," said an FBI spokesman at agency headquarters in Washington on Friday, "and we hope to know a lot more about it before the day's over." 

The FBI has been in contact with Hamdan several times and was scheduled to interview him again Friday, officials said. 

Intercepting a cell phone call is not rare, as the signal can easily get crossed or misdirected. 

In addition, mobile phone companies generally keep a list of calls and are able to tell not only which numbers are dialed, and at what time, but also the direction in which a caller is headed, if he or she is on the move. Many providers keep a detailed log on calls that have been handled by their systems such as the user's number, the call's date and time, and what cell sites were used, reports CNN. 

This capability has enabled police, for example, to find a young woman who had been kidnapped and thrown into the trunk of her car. 

Cellular telephone calls are handled on wireless communications networks that use transmitting sites or "cells" often seen as radio towers along highways. As calls are processed through the system, calls can be misdirected and inadvertently picked up by other users, reports CNN. 

Hamdan's revelation is the second mention this week of a possible terrorist threat on July 4. 

On Wednesday, the FBI said intelligence shows that terrorist attacks may be planned for the Independence Day holiday. 

"[Headquarters] has sent an electronic communication to its 56 field offices on uncorroborated information of possible terrorist attacks within the U.S.," FBI spokeswoman Debbie Wierman said, emphasizing that this was not an FBI warning but a communication with the bureau's agents on the ground. 

Rumors have also been circulating in Washington about a possible attack on the city's subway system, which is used by thousands of tourists who come to the U.S. capital each year to enjoy fireworks and other Independence Day festivities.

The report of a possible Independence Day attack tapped into a deeply-held fear in the United States: more than half the U.S. public believe that a terrorist attack could occur on July 4th, according to a Time magazine/CNN poll released Friday.  

Of 57 percent of people surveyed who believed an attack was a definite possibility, 13 percent said they thought an attack was very likely compared with 44 percent who said it would be somewhat likely, according to the poll.

Seventy-one percent of Americans also said the creation of a cabinet-level security department would make the United States more secure from terrorist attacks, while 24 percent said it would not.

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