The Conrad, one Bangkok hotel cited by Mr. Isamuddin as a Qaeda target, now has bomb-sniffing dogs and soldiers with automatic rifles on its grounds.

As American forces fanned out last week on raids against other Qaeda targets in the Baghdad area, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top American commander, was working on a long-range plan.

But a senior European counterterrorism official cautioned that "some recent information" indicated that the buildings might remain on a list of Qaeda targets.

One of their products, days after the attacks, was a memo that suggested "hitting targets outside the Middle East in the initial offensive" or a "non-Al Qaeda target like Iraq."

Responding on Saturday to press reports - including Mr. Noble's comments suggesting that France is a likely Qaeda target - Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said, "The interior-security council worked on all these questions, but the work is confidential."

Mr. Meserve, the former chairman, said in his e-mail message that based on intelligence information about Qaeda targets, "I was very comfortable in putting the nuclear industry at high alert."

The author suggested instead hitting terrorists outside the Middle East in the initial offensive, perhaps deliberately selecting a non-al Qaeda target like Iraq.

Five buildings were given as suspected Qaeda targets, though no one suggested when they might be hit: the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup buildings in Manhattan; the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington; the Prudential Financial building in Newark.

In February 2003, the government's National Infrastructure Protection Center warned that chemical plants in the United States could be Qaeda targets.

In the seven months that preceded the first Predator strike, Yemeni and Saudi operatives cooperated to track Qaeda targets, but key Qaeda leaders, like Mr. Ahdal, are still at large in Yemen.