State Department Noon Briefing, October 25, 2000

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2000 - 1:50 P.M.
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)



Q: About the terrorist threat in the Middle East, and we heard that
today you closed the Consulate General in Adana nearby the Incirlik.


REEKER:  In - ?



Q:  Nearby the Incirlik is the Adana Consulate General.



REEKER:  Sorry.



Q:  And the US closed the Consulate General Adana.



REEKER:  I am not aware of that.



Q:  Is that linked to the terrorism?



REEKER: I'm not aware that that Consulate has been closed. I would be
happy to check. As you know, under our Worldwide Caution we did
indicate that facilities - US facilities may --


Q: And, also, today is - also Israeli embassy in Ankara is - they
take very strong precautions about this terrorism threat. They said
that it was linked with the US threat and the same thing. Did you have
any information about this threat included the Israelis also?


REEKER: Well, for the Israelis I would refer you to the Israelis to
comment on that. I think you are aware of, first of all, the Worldwide
Caution that we have in place since October 12th. And also, as you'll
recall, on October 18th we issued a Public Announcement for the
Persian Gulf, the Arabian Peninsula and Turkey, describing that the US
Government has indications that individuals may be planning terrorist
actions against US citizens or interests in those locations, and
telling US citizens that they should exercise caution when they are
considering travel to those areas at this time. So that is our Public
Announcement that remains very much in effect, and I just don't have
anything further to add on that.

....

Q: Well, okay. I just wanted to go a little further with terrorism and
security to prevent terroristic - the effects of terroristic attacks.
In the Middle East and in the Gulf, what US - State Department --
assets are currently on alert, or at a status of - a defensive
status, or what is the current situation?


REEKER: We are always on alert, Bill, and we take security extremely
seriously. Both the Pentagon and the State Department takes very
seriously threats against our people. We distribute threat warnings
broadly. I think we have had ample discussions here of Public
Announcements and specific travel warnings that we release.


And the State Department, as you know, under our policy, when we have
information, we share that information and release that through this
consular information program. So that is something we obviously take
very seriously. We have a Worldwide Caution in place. We have specific
travel warnings for specific regions that we have discussed, and I
don't think there is much more I can add to that.


Q: Are there any - and I'm basically getting at - are there any
embassies that are currently closed?


REEKER: I think we talked about that at the very beginning of the
briefing. We have an embassy closed for public business Thursday and
Friday in Jakarta, Indonesia. Our embassy in Cote d'Ivoire, Abidjan,
is closed currently due to the uncertainty of the fluid situation
there. But I have no other reports of closed embassies.


Q:  There are no closed facilities in the Middle East or Gulf?



REEKER: I can never tell you definitively at any one moment that an
embassy has closed, but I had no reports of closed embassies other
than the ones we just discussed.


Thanks.



(The briefing was concluded at 2:30 P.M.)