FBI Hunts al-Qaida Agents in 40 States

AP ^ | June 27, 2003 | CURT ANDERSON

[sarcasm]

A top FBI counterterrorism official says agents are hunting al-Qaida operatives in 40 U. S. states, but the bureau remains worried that some of the most dangerous individuals remain unknown.

Larry Mefford, assistant FBI director for counterterrorism, said Thursday that authorities "feel a lot more confident" they know the identities of dozens of members of the al-Qaida terror network than they did shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"I don't want to say that we know where they all are," Mefford told reporters after testifying before the Senate Judiciary terrorism subcommittee.

Mefford said the investigations in 40 states run "the whole gamut" from people positively identified as al-Qaida operatives to uncorroborated tips from citizens.

"We know this: The al-Qaida terrorist network remains the most serious threat to U.S. interests both at home and overseas," Mefford told the panel. "That network includes groups committed to the international jihad movement and it has demonstrated the ability to survive setbacks."

Asked if he believed such a sleeper cell could be poised for a new attack on the scale of Sept. 11, Mefford said, "Not that I'm aware of."

The FBI has had greater success in finding people suspected of providing logistical or recruiting help to al-Qaida. Mefford cited as an example last week's guilty plea by Ohio trucker Iyman Faris, who admitted to conducting surveillance for a possible attack on the Brooklyn Bridge and plotting to derail trains.

Earlier this week, President Bush designated as an enemy combatant Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a Qatari man living in Illinois who the government claims provided financial and other support to new al-Qaida arrivals in the United States.

"I know the logistical cells are here," Mefford told reporters. "The question is whether the most dangerous cells are here."

One difficulty is that many al-Qaida members use multiple aliases and "jihad" names that are difficult to track. Mefford said the FBI earlier this year found the true identity of one suspected cell member: Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a Saudi-born man with Florida ties who is the subject of a global manhunt.

"We don't know where he is," Mefford said.

Mefford told the Senate panel that arrests of senior al-Qaida leaders and disruption of its sanctuary in Afghanistan have made it more difficult for the organization to mount major attacks. The FBI is concerned that could lead to more random, smaller-scale attacks against lightly secured targets.

He also said that al-Qaida continues efforts to recruit U.S. citizens and non-Arab operatives who could more easily escape detection and slip through new security measures at U.S. borders.

"They understand the benefits of having this type of asset, somebody who can travel under the radar screen," Mefford said.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., raised several questions about whether Muslim clerics are spreading a version of extreme fundamentalist Islamic teachings in American prisons and among Muslims in the U.S. military.

Schumer said this interpretation of Islam, known as Wahabbism, has spread from Saudi Arabia and preaches "hate, violence and intolerance" toward moderate Muslims, Jews and Christians. Most al-Qaida members subscribe to these teachings, he said.

"My fear is, if we don't wake up and take action now, those influenced by Wahabbism's extremist ideology will harm us in as of yet unimaginable ways," Schumer said.

Mefford said that the FBI and Bureau of Prisons, along with state corrections officials, are actively working on ways to prevent al-Qaida from recruiting in prisons through proselytizing by Islamic clerics tied to terrorism or extremist teachings.

[Skywalk]

Wow, Schumer and I agree on something.

[sarcasm]

It's a first for me too

SCHUMER WANTS FANATICAL IMAMS ROOTED OUT OF JAILS, ARMED FORCES

June 27, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Militant Muslim imams are preaching a distorted, hateful form of Islam to U.S. soldiers and federal prisoners, creating a "dangerous situation," Sen. Charles Schumer charged yesterday.

Schumer said the problem is that the Pentagon and the federal Bureau of Prisons select Muslim imams on the advice of Islamic groups in the grip of the fanatical Wahhabism strain of the religion.

"While the potential Wahhabi influence in the U.S. Armed Forces is not well documented, these organizations have succeeded in ensuring that militant Wahhabism is the only form of Islam that is preached to the 12,000 Muslims in federal prison," Schumer said at a Senate hearing on extremist Wahhabi Islam, which has been linked to terrorism.

In February, the New York prison system barred its top Muslim chaplain from its prison facilities after the imam, Warith Dean Umar, said the 9/11 hijackers should be treated as martyrs.

"The imams flood the prisons with anti-American, pro-bin Laden videos, literature and sermon tapes . . . The point of prison [should be] to rehabilitate violent prisoners."

The Bureau of Prisons uses the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences (GISS), which is under investigation for possible funneling of money to terrorists, and the Islamic Society of North America, which has board members with terror links, Schumer charged.

American Muslim Foundation President Abdurahman Alamoudi said his organization had no role advising the Pentagon. Alamoudi said he formerly gave the Pentagon advice on selecting imams, but "they pushed me out."