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Some of the surveillance files that triggered the nation’s latest terrorism alert were reviewed and updated by Al Qaeda just months ago and dovetail with other, fresh intelligence that indicates the terrorism network remains intent on launching a major U.S. attack during the presidential election campaign, U.S. authorities said Monday. Despite the elaborate details about five financial institutions in New York; Newark, N.J.; and Washington that are contained in the files, officials said they had been unable to learn whether Al Qaeda had agents in this country preparing for attacks. But several senior U.S. counterterrorism officials said that the surveillance, obtained in Pakistan and reviewed late last week by authorities in Washington, came amid a continuing stream of intelligence corroborating Al Qaeda’s determination to launch strikes in the U.S. “It’s like you have this blank piece of paper and it’s filling up with more and more dots. It all points to an attack,” said one senior Department of Homeland Security official. Full Story