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Posted on Sat, Dec. 14, 2002

FBI Director: 100 Terror Attacks Stopped

CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Nearly 100 terrorist attacks, some intended to take place on U.S. soil, have been thwarted since Sept. 11, 2001, FBI Director Robert Mueller says. But he warns that many potential terrorists remain at large in the United States.

"We will be at war until we make certain that every member of al-Qaida is incapacitated in his or her ability to harm the United States," Mueller told The Associated Press.

In a wide-ranging, almost hourlong interview in his seventh-floor conference room at FBI headquarters, Mueller also rejected proposals to shift counterintelligence duties from the FBI to a new agency. He said punishment is not the answer for mistakes by individual FBI agents before the Sept. 11 attacks.

On terrorism, Mueller said "tens of attacks, probably close to a hundred around the world" have been stopped in the past 15 months. He credited better intelligence gathering and coordination, and information from al-Qaida detainees in custody, including those he described as architects of would-be attacks.

"There have been any number of attacks on ships that have been thwarted," Mueller said. "Without getting into details, we have thwarted a number of attacks, both large and small."

Asked if some of those attacks were aimed at U.S. targets, Mueller said: "Yes."

He specifically mentioned Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen being held as an enemy combatant who authorities say was plotting to detonate a "dirty" radioactive bomb in the United States. Also cited were the arrests of members of an alleged al-Qaida cell in Lackawanna, N.Y., and individuals in Portland, Ore., Seattle and elsewhere.

Mueller said it may take years to destroy al-Qaida and other terrorist groups, but he said the United States and its allies have the upper hand.

"I think we're well on our way to winning the war, but the fact of the matter is, it is a war. Al-Qaida still has the capability of striking us," he said.