Posted on 05/19/2003 4:59:42 PM PDT by Brian S
WASHINGTON - The largest volume of intercepted communications and other intelligence since before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks suggests that al-Qaida is preparing a new wave of attacks on Western targets in the Muslim world and perhaps in the United States, senior U.S. and Saudi Arabian officials said Monday.
Monday's version of the CIA's "threat matrix," a daily top-secret compilation of intelligence on possible attacks, warned that intercepted telephone calls and other communications, reports from agents and friendly intelligence services, and other information all suggested that new attacks were likely in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Southeast Asia.
A senior U.S. official who's been reading the matrix daily since the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington said attacks also were possible in Europe and North America, and called the increased warnings "pretty goddamn riveting."
In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, said he believed that the suicide bombers who killed 34 people, including eight Americans, last week in Riyadh were part of a larger terrorist operation.
He said a high level of "intelligence chatter," both regionally and internationally, suggested that another terrorist attack was possible in Saudi Arabia or the United States. "My gut feeling tells me that something big is going to happen here or in America," he said.
At a news conference with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in Washington on Monday, President Bush said al-Qaida was still plotting to kill Americans and added: "I always said this was going to be a long war."
However, Brian J. Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the department "will not be raising the threat level in the United States at this time." The current level is yellow, for a significant risk of terrorist attack; the next level is orange, for a high risk. The highest level is red, which means a severe risk.
Another administration official, who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity, said any new attacks were likely to be on a smaller scale and less sophisticated than the Sept. 11, 2001, airplane hijackings, more like the suicide car bombings last week in Saudi Arabia and Morocco.
Al-Qaida's top leaders are moving constantly, trying to avoid detection and capture, the official said, and lower-ranking members of the group, some of whom have found sanctuary in Iran, appear to be coordinating some operations. Others, such as the Morocco bombings, appear to be the work of local groups inspired but not necessarily directed by Osama bin Laden, the official said.
The United States is "slowly but surely" dismantling al-Qaida's terrorist network, Bush said Monday. "But we've got a lot of work to do."
Prince Bandar hosted nine journalists at a dinner interview Monday in a Bedouin tent outside Riyadh to explain his country's reactions to the May 12 attack. He acknowledged that his country and the United States had warnings of an imminent attack, but said: "We never had the specific time or place."
Prince Bandar also said the terrorists might have been planning a larger bombing but speeded up their timetable after a raid on an apparent safe house netted 800 pounds of explosives, as well as weapons and hand grenades.
A number of wigs, blonde and dark-haired, also were found in the raid, suggesting that the terrorists planned to don disguises during the attacks or at another time.
Prince Bandar said a group of about 50 hard-core terrorists might be operating on Saudi soil with a group of sympathizers that could number "in the low hundreds."
"We are going after them with a vengeance," no holds barred, he said. He also said Saudi officials were cooperating with more than 60 U.S. officials, including FBI and CIA agents, who arrived in Saudi Arabia to participate in the investigations.
Though Westerners may be impatient with the pace of change, Prince Bandar said, the ruling family is moving to address the people's needs. "The day we lose touch with our people," he said, "we're finished."
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(Montgomery reported from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Walcott reported from Washington. Sumana Chatterjee contributed to this report from Washington.)
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(c) 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Now is the time for all you morons in DU to tell us what we are to do to stop these attacks before they happen. For I know that after the fact you will be whining and moaning about the republican failure to stop these terrorist. Please tell us now, don't wait. Or forever keep you mouths shut.
I hope it doesn't come to that. There's nothing that would please Al-Qaida more than if mosques and Islamic centers were stormed. Al-Qaida wants the moderate muslims to feel that there is no more future in being moderate, that all muslims are under attack and should answer the call to arms.
Yes, now we will fight. But we must fight smart. We can reward islamic moderation and be relentless in punishment of islamic radicalism.
With a few shoulder-fired missiles, and the unmonitored take-off and landing paths at hundreds of commercial airports, do you really believe that?
I think we're doing a good job also - probably more than we're being told..........but...........our "compassionate" war in Iraq with our smart bombs to save "the people" so they can rise up against us again, may be our undoing. From what I've observed, radical and even moderate Islam doesn't see "compassionate" anything as a strength - more of a weakness.
I also agree if they hit us again in America, the people will act. I just hope President Bush is prepared for that when it happens - because it will happen.
We needs our 'tainment, don't ya know.
BUMP
I agree. Bush is making a crucial mistake by not closing the borders.
We may find Saddam's WMD's here in America.
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