Even more reminders today about the ongoing threat from al Qaeda. I hope the people were listening when GWB said this war is going to take years.
A third generation of an estimated 800 to 1,000 Al Qaeda terrorists -- mainly suicide attackers based on several continents -- is preparing strikes against tourist and economic targets worldwide, a French terrorism expert said Tuesday. Roland Jacquard, a French consultant to the United Nations, said the new generation of terrorists is unpredictable, hard to track and ready to strike.Jacquard took part in preparing a report for a U.N. Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. In a telephone interview, he said the estimate of 800 to 1,000 terrorists in the new generation was his figure and would not appear in the U.N. report scheduled for release next week.
Jacquard said, the first generation of Al Qaeda was the original group based in Afghanistan. It spawned the second generation -- those who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States. "Today, Al Qaeda has become a terrorist organization that no longer reacts in pyramid fashion," Jacquard said, referring to the highly structured organization headed by Usama bin Laden that handed out orders from the top and followed a strategy.
Now, he said, it works "in concentric circles," with each layer acting independently of the other. "It is more dangerous as each group chooses its target."
via Fox News
And even a local angle to the threats emerged today.
U.S. intelligence agencies early this month eavesdropped on two suspected al-Qaida operatives discussing potential terrorism in Texas timed for the July Fourth weekend, raising the specter of an attack on energy facilities in the Houston area, officials here said Monday. That information, which did not specify a target, an exact time or a type of terrorist attack, was passed along to state officials.Posted by Alan at June 24, 2003 09:21 PMWith Texas as the target, officials are especially concerned about oil or gas facilities and pipelines because al-Qaida terrorists in the past have talked about attacking the energy sector as a way of damaging America's economy, officials said.
A federal official confirmed an account first published in Newsweek magazine that a possible al-Qaida operative known as "Sakr" told another person during an Internet chat room conversation that an attack had been planned for a long time, and that terrorists inside the United States were only waiting for approval from a man dubbed "the Sheik" before striking in early July.
The information was more intriguing to intelligence analysts than much of the avalanche of vaguely suspicious electronic intercepts because Sakr had sent a message predicting "good news" coming from Morocco shortly before a successful terrorist strike in that country.
via the Houston Chronicle