| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| Leads came from 3 jugged al-Qaeda members |
| 2004-08-03 |
| The information that led authorities to issue an unprecedented warning of potential terrorist attacks on financial centers in New York, Washington and New Jersey came from at least three al-Qaeda members deemed highly reliable, U.S. and Pakistani officials said yesterday. Two were pivotal figures arrested last month in Pakistan in separate raids where documentary evidence also was captured, the officials said. The more important of the two was an al-Qaeda computer engineer who relayed communications to network members, they said. The third is in British custody and is cooperating, one official said. Disclosure of the multiple points of intelligence about planning for the attacks helps explain why the Bush administration decided Sunday to announce a heightened state of alert and identify specific potential targets - even though counterterrorism experts are unsure how far the terrorists' planning had progressed or whether the plan was even still under consideration. Government officials told the Washington Post yesterday that most, if not all, of the information about the buildings seized by authorities in a raid in Pakistan last week was about three years old, and possibly older. Analysts are racing through the captured documents to determine whether the terrorists' surveillance and attack planning are continuing, said a U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because classified information is involved. One expert suggested the discovery of the plot and the government's announcement largely neutralized the threat. "It kills it," said Vincent Cannistraro, a former top CIA counterterrorism official. "This is a dead operational plan." Cannistraro said there was no doubt Sunday's alert "is a real one... a lot different qualitatively than the previous terror alerts, which have been based on much flimsier information." The sources of such reports include the operative in British custody, who is knowledgeable about al-Qaeda's intentions and is cooperating, one official said. No other details were available. "The level and the texture and the quality of [the intelligence], you can't rule out" that attack planning is ongoing, the U.S. intelligence official said of the decision to raise the alert level. "When you see that kind of reporting... you really need to take notice." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |