FBI: Fuel trucks may be used by terrorists

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI said Friday it is advising law enforcement agencies nationwide that "certain terrorist elements may be interested in using fuel tanker trucks" to attack targets in the United States and overseas.

It mentioned no specific targets in the advisory, but the FBI said "intelligence indicates the possible targeting of fuel depots or Jewish schools or synagogues."

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The advisory -- based on uncorroborated information -- was provided to the news media before it was distributed to 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide "out of an abundance of caution."

The advisory urged law enforcement agencies to ask Jewish community leaders and the operators of fuel depots to report any suspicious activity.

A U.S. official said some of the information upon which the FBI based its advisory came from detainees being questioned by U.S. officials at Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval station in Cuba, where al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are being held. The official said the information is "not very specific and not very credible."

A senior Bush administration official involved in the homeland security effort said the information that sparked the advisory was not deemed specific enough to warrant raising the government's threat level -- which now stands at "yellow" on the color-coded scale developed by Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge.

"We have an obligation to pass it along and to put people on notice, but we don't want people to think they should change their routines," the senior official said.

In the past, the administration has complained about what it considered the "exaggerated" reporting of past advisories.

In recent months these advisories have passed along non-specific intelligence suggesting apartment buildings could be targeted by terrorists, and that terrorist groups perhaps have obtained shoulder-fired missiles capable of shooting down commercial airliners.

"These are intelligence updates not intelligence warnings and that is an important distinction," the senior official said.

-- From CNN Correspondents Kelli Arena, John King and David Ensor