The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that it is raising the security levels at its military bases across the nation because of the upcoming tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on Sunday.
Pentagon spokesman George Little says the boost in the “force protection condition” is not due to any specific threat or planned attack, according to the Associated Press.
Instead, Little says, it’s because Al Qaeda has previously plotted to attack on on anniversaries, and that materials seized at the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed had mentioned the anniversary of Sept. 11.
Most U.S. military installations abroad have already been operating at a higher security level.
The force protection condition, or FPCON, is a system designed by the Department of Defense to indicate the level of potential terrorist threats against military facilities.
This is different from the defense readiness condition, or DEFCON, which indicates the amount of military readiness required for a potential attack on the civilian population.