US Purges Official Websites That Could Help Terrorists

The White House has ordered a purge of information from government agency websites that could be exploited by terrorists seeking weapons of mass destruction.

An internal memo from the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, called for an urgent re-examination of all publicly available documents, potentially leading to the removal of thousands of papers, records and reports. Much of the information earmarked for withdrawal from the public domain has been available for years.

The agencies have been given 90 days to judge which information could be deemed sensitive and to report their findings to the homeland security director, Tom Ridge.

"You and your department or agency have an obligation to safeguard government records regarding weapons of mass destruction," Mr Card wrote. "Government information, regardless of its age, that could reasonably be expected to assist in the development or use of weapons of mass destruction... should not be disclosed inappropriately."

A second memo drafted by officials at the White House and the US Justice Department said the clean-up should extend to "sensitive but unclassified" information, leading to concerns among some advocates of open records.

Hypothetical examples cited by White House officials in a Washington Post report included documents on "dual use" nuclear materials such as spent fuel rods from power plants that could be converted to weapons. It also quoted information on heating and air conditioning systems that could help terrorists to spread anthrax in public buildings. A third example was computer maintenance data that might help hackers.

Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, admitted that government agencies, as well as private groups, had posted information on web-sites that should be re-evaluated. He described the measure as prudent against the backdrop of the terrorist at tacks of September 11 and the ongoing conflict.

"This is serious business," he said. "The world is a very different place after September 11. This is so terrorists cannot use our technology against us once again."

Mr Fleischer said the internet was a "wonderful device" but also called it a "catch-22". "The web makes it very easy for security officials to have the information. That's the upside," he said. "The bad side is that same information can be used by would-be attackers".

An accompanying memo from the acting director of information security oversight, Laura Kimberly, told departments to classify information that "could reasonably be expected to assist in the development or use of weapons of mass destruction".

The call to tighten security follows the Bush administration's humiliation last week when the immigration service issued visas to two of the terrorists who died in the attacks of September 11.