Department of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge spoke on August 1, 2004. “The government possessed, he said, ‘new and unusually specific information about where al-Qaeda would like to attack. And as a result, today, the United States Government is raising the threat level to Code Orange for the financial services sector in New York City, Northern New Jersey and Washington, DC.’ Ridge described the intelligence involved as ‘rarely seen’ and ‘alarming in both the amount and specificity of the information,’ and he promised public updates ‘as the situation unfolds.’ “
– Ian S. Lustick, Trapped in the War on Terror, Page 110