| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| Al-Qaeda, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Ansar al-Islam members in NYC |
| 2004-08-04 |
| I think that Ansar al-Islam probably means al-Tawhid, although documents were recovered from Beyara naming suspected terrorists in the US. The FBI is monitoring suspected Al Qaeda operatives and members of two allied terror groups in the New York City area, the FBI's New York director said yesterday. Law enforcement sources also said there are indications that the terrorists who cased financial towers in New York, Newark and Washington may have updated their files as recently as this spring. Pasquale D'Amuro, director of the FBI's New York office and a veteran terrorism investigator, said the individuals under scrutiny here include people linked to Al Qaeda as well as Ansar al Islam and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. He said the monitoring began long before this weekend's heightened alert was announced. While officials have said in the past that they were watching a handful of Al Qaeda suspects in the country, they have not said they were in the metropolitan area. They also have not mentioned the Ansar al Islam and Egyptian Islamic Jihad. D'Amuro said his office is poring over the evidence that Al Qaeda carried out a detailed surveillance for a possible attack on five buildings, including the New York Stock Exchange and the Citigroup building. "One piece we don't have is when is that event supposed to take place," D'Amuro said. "We are out there trying to find out if there are sleepers in place. Are there people coming in? Are there operators here? That's our No. 1 job." A key element is trying to determine when the surveillance occurred. The FBI is going over what appears to be the terrorists' detailed surveillance notes with building security personnel at both buildings, law enforcement sources said. They're looking at the written descriptions of security procedures, guards' uniforms and architectural details such as lobby renovations to determine when Al Qaeda operatives were taking notes, the sources said. Most of the material appears to predate Sept. 11, 2001, but it also appears to include updates as recent as this past spring, the sources said. Officials had previously said it was updated in January. It's not clear whether the updates are from publicly available sources or from personal surveillance. "The whole question is, how do we assess all of this?" said FBI counterterror director John Pistole. "Because we know an intended target, does that mean [surveillance] is still ongoing? That's one of the questions that we're wrestling with." Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge met yesterday at the Citigroup Center with security chiefs from the city's largest financial institutions and rejected suggestions that presidential election politics were behind the weekend's terror alert. He also dismissed the fact that much of the surveillance is several years old. "We know that this is an organization, a terrorist organization, that does its homework," said Ridge. "So I don't want anyone to disabuse themselves of the seriousness of this information simply because there are some reports that much of it is dated .... This is a resilient organization that does its homework, and we just have to accept that reality." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 "The whole question is, how do we assess all of this?" said FBI counterterror director John Pistole. "Because we know an intended target, does that mean [surveillance] is still ongoing? That’s one of the questions that we’re wrestling with." Who cares whether surveillance is still ongoing? That fact that the buildings in questions HAVE ALREADY been scoped out means that weaknesses are being probed, and that what is needed is action on details we already know or found out recently, not to mention an up-to-date assessment of the current situation at each potential high-value target site. Wrestling with a question of whether terrorist surveillance of targets is still ongoing?.....sheesh, this guy sounds like he's clueless. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-08-04 1:01:24 PM |
#1 Al Qaeda operatives and members of two allied terror groups in the New York City areaAs if these Muslim Murder KKKlans™ are not ALL Al Qaeda! Noooooooo. The Muslim Murder KKKlans of these two other groups are by no means Al Qaeda. They must be militants interested in other goals than blowing up usurper Jews and their infidel Christian crusader American allies. Obviously. |
| Posted by: Victory Now Please 2004-08-04 12:57:26 PM |