Al Qaeda Infiltration?
Evidence Suggests Terror Network Has Greater Presence in U.S. Than Thought
ABCNEWS.com
W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 4, 2004— U.S. intelligence has evidence al Qaeda operatives cased major targets in New York and Washington from the inside, ABC News has learned. It was part of a meticulous surveillance operation that managed to obtain unusual access. Information found on the computer files of Mohammed Khan, the 25-year-old computer engineer who was arrested last month in Pakistan, is responsible for the current terror alert at financial centers in New York, Washington, D.C., and Newark, N.J.
Khan's records continue to yield critical clues about al Qaeda's operations, including indications that he may have communicated with several people in the United States in recent months, sources told ABC News.
Khan's computer files show al Qaeda operatives thoroughly casing the financial centers both outside and inside just before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the sources said.
Law enforcement officials said the bulk of the extensive surveillance was conducted on the Citigroup Center in Manhattan, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington, and Prudential Financial Inc.'s headquarters in Newark, N.J. Federal officials publicly identified those targets earlier this week, along with the New York Stock Exchange.
"Given the specificity that apparently are in these reports, that they were not just casual targets. These were real targets," said former FBI counterterrorism agent Jack Cloonan, an ABC News consultant.
The computer files, written in English, narrate the travels of al Qaeda members throughout the buildings, offering step-by-step color commentary in rich detail, sources said.
The documents suggest the facilities were under surveillance morning and night, with operatives looking for times when security was lax and when the most potential victims were present.
Al Qaeda's attention to the interior of buildings is one reason why the FBI has warned police not only about the potential for truck bomb attacks, but also about the possibility of bombings from the inside, as well as biological and chemical attacks.
Said former FBI analyst Matthew Levitt, now a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy: "I think their primary objective is just to kill as many people as possible."
ABC News' Pierre Thomas filed this report for World News Tonight
What nationality is Khan? I understand that many foreigners are completely fluent in English & can use it as easily as their native tongue, but why were his files in English? Others have mentioned the possibility of mis-information. I don't know how clever it is to get caught in a 12-hour gunfight, then captured & hope that your enemy will find the disinformation on your hard drive but it does seem odd that the files weren't in Arabic.