Terror Threats Based on Old Reports, Officials Say; Statue of Liberty Reopens to Public; Lockheed Wins Bid for New Spy Plane; IBM to Build Supercomputer for Army

Terror Threats Based on Old Reports, Officials Say

The terror threats to financial institutions in New York City, New Jersey and Washington D.C. were based on reports that were three or four years old, according to officials. As reported by several outlets, including The New York Times, officials still found the threats to be credible because of a separate, more general, stream of intelligence that inicated that Al Qaeda intends to hit targets in the United States this year. “You could say that the bulk of this information is old, but we know that Al Qaeda collects, collects, collects until they’re comfortable,” one senior government official told The Times. “Only then do they carry out an operation. And there are signs that some of this may hae been updated or may be more recent.”

For more details, read this article in The New York Times.

Statue of Liberty Reopens to Public

The Statue of Liberty will be open to the public Tuesday for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001. However, tourists will no longer be able to climb into the statue itself, according to the National Park Service. As reported by several outlets, including The New York Times, officials said it was no longer safe to allow sightseers to climb inside the statue. In an emergency, officials said, it would be difficult to evacuate people from the inside. The park service has spent $6.7 million to upgrade fire safety systems and improve security. Tourists will only be granted access to the museum and the observation balcomny below the statue’s feet. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) was particularly critical of the new policy, saying that the park service should restore full access to the statue. He also called for the resignation of Stephen A. Briganti, president of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

For more details, read the full article in The New York Times.

Lockheed Wins Bid for New Spy Plane

Lockheed Martin won an Army contract Monday that could be worth as much as $6 billion to develop spy planes that can detect enemy signals and track troop movements. According to an article in the Washington Post, the plane will be unarmed and fly at 37,000 over the battlefield at 400 miles per hour, as it searches for enemy radio and radar signals. The plane, known as the Aerial Common Sensor, will replace two army planes: Guardrail Common Sensor and Airborne Reconnaissance Low, as well as the Navy’s EP-3E.

For more details read the full article in the Washington Post.

IBM to Build Supercomputer for Army

The Army plans to announce Tuesday that it has contracted with IBM to build a new supercomputer to help develop more effective weapons systems. According to an article in the Washington Post, the Defense Dept. will send roughly $15 million for the machine, which will be housed at the Army Research Laboratory’s Major Shared Resource Center in Aberdeen. The new supercomputer will run on Linux.

For more details, read the full arcitle in the Washington Post.