US on alert as hunt for terrorist cells continues

The US yesterday took another step towards a return to "normalcy" as flags on Federal buildings were raised to full mast for the first time since the attack. But grieving continued with over 55,000 New Yorkers packing Yankee stadium in the Bronx for a huge multi-denominational "Prayer for America" memorial service.

The country remains on high alert with reports in the press suggesting a number of al-Quaeda cells are still at liberty. And Time magazine is reporting official fears of a biological or chemical warfare attack following the finding on one suspect of a manual on cropdusting techniques that has led to a ban on flights by crop-dusters near cities.

The President's National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, said simply that it is best to assume that other operatives remain at large. The Washington Post reported four to five al-Quaeda groups have operated in the US for the last several years, but investigators have not yet found any connection between them and any of the 19 hijackers responsible for the attacks.

The cells are under intensive government surveillance. The FBI has not made any arrests because the group members entered the country legally in recent years and have not been involved in illegal activities since they arrived, security sources are quoted as saying. They say they do not know why the cells are here.

Much of the weekend debate on the campaign in the press and on TV has focused on whether the campaign should extend to overthrowing President Saddam Hussein.

With 73 per cent in an INN poll supporting an attack on Iraq, the veteran right-winger, Senator Jesse Helms, also publicly backed what is said to be a Defence Department strategy. The Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, seemed to acknowledge that a debate in the administration is ongoing but insisted the President had made a decision to target Afghanistan as the first focus of the campaign. The State Department is understood to fear that attacks on Iraq may unravel the international alliance being created.

Mr Powell pledged the target of any US military action would be Osama bin Laden, not the people of Afghanistan. "We are not interested in going after the Afghan people," he said.

He also indicated that any military action in Afghanistan will not be on the scale of the Gulf War. "Let's not assume there will be a large-scale move," he said. "I don't think we should even consider a large-scale war at this point." Speaking on news chat shows yesterday morning, he, Ms Rice and the Secretary of Defence, Mr Don Rumsfeld, all rejected Taliban claims that the organisation did not know where Osama bin Laden is now. "We're not going to be deterred by comments that he may be missing. We don't simply believe it," Ms Rice told Fox News Sunday.

Mr Rumsfeld said such claims were "simply not credible."