OBL - Zarqawi UPDATE
Reuters is reporting the recent communications between Usama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi indicated that bin Laden has encouraged Zarqawi and his group to attack American interests outside of Iraq. This is much more general than was reported yesterday. Further information is that the communications were intercepted about two months ago. This was at a time when Zarqawi was focused upon stopping/disrupting the Iraqi elections and may have reflected optimism by OBL that he would be successful and swing momentum back to the terrorists.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=681811§ion=news&src=rss/uk/topNews
(snipped)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has fairly recently asked his chief ally in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to consider the territory of United States as a target for terrorist attacks, a U.S. counterterrorism official says.
"There has been communication between bin Laden and Zarqawi with bin Laden suggesting to Zarqawi the U.S. homeland as a target," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official said on Monday the communication was "a fairly recent development" and contained no specific threat to the United States. But the official declined to provide details for fear of compromising U.S. anti-terrorism efforts.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has warned state officials around the country that the government had received non-specific information about al Qaeda's plans to attack the United States.
http://officer.com/article/article.jsp?id=21950&siteSection=1
The Department of Homeland Security says bin Laden has contacted the mastermind in the past two weeks, telling him to plan operations outside of Iraq and to attack American targets inside and outside of the United States.