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The FBI gets some credible leadership ... at last! A<>E<>R [EMAIL PROTECTED] General Sees Scant Evidence of Threat Near in U.S. December 13, 2002 By ERIC SCHMITT and PHILIP SHENON WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - The nation's top general for domestic security says he has seen little evidence to suggest an imminent terrorism threat inside the United States by members of Al Qaeda's network, and warns against using "McCarthyism" in combating terror. "I am not aware of a significant threat to this nation" from so-called sleeper cells, said the officer, Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart. General Eberhart, who as head of the military's newly created Northern Command oversees the Pentagon's contribution to domestic counterterrorism efforts, expressed concern that undetected terrorist cells could be operating in the United States and plotting new attacks. "To say that we're not aware of it," he said, "is not the same to say that it doesn't exist." But he said there was scant intelligence to suggest an immediate domestic threat from Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, and voiced growing optimism about the government's ability to prevent and respond to terrorist strikes. The comments by the general, a four-star Air Force officer who has access to much of the same intelligence that President Bush receives, may be reassuring to a public made jittery by repeated terrorism alerts from Washington. But they appeared to contradict pronouncements from senior law enforcement officials, including Attorney General John Ashcroft, of an impending threat of domestic terrorist attacks. In a wide-ranging 45-minute conversation at his headquarters in Colorado Springs this week, General Eberhart said his command had established a strong working relationship with law enforcement agencies, noting that the F.B.I. had a permanent representative on his staff. And aides to the general said later that his comments, in his first major interview since the Northern Command was established on Oct. 1, were simply a candid airing of his views, not a purposeful departure from Mr. Ashcroft's outlook or Bush administration policy. In Congressional testimony last summer, Mr. Ashcroft said that Al Qaeda maintained an "active presence in the United States, waiting to strike again," and that the United States was "at war with a terrorism network operating within our borders." He said that "there remain sleeper terrorists and their supporters in the United States." In June, the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, said a "substantial" number of people suspected of ties to Al Qaeda and other terror groups were under constant surveillance in the United States. Since late summer, the bureau has rounded up more than a dozen people in upstate New York, Detroit and elsewhere who have been accused of involvement in sleeper cells. General Eberhart said he was increasingly confident that if terrorist cells were in the United States, law enforcement would ferret them out before they struck. But he said there was a natural tension between a need for aggressive pursuit of terrorists on one hand and, on the other, a need for caution that there be no abridgements of civil liberties - "some of the things we did in the 50's with McCarthyism, which I think was a very sad chapter in our history." "We just have to be very, very careful that we don't misread some things we see, that we don't jump to conclusions," he said. "Our basic freedoms must be protected," he said, though he acknowledged that "those who attack us usually leverage those freedoms to do things that they couldn't do in other countries." A White House spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, said he could not comment on the general's remarks without studying the full context in which they were made. But Mr. Johndroe, who works for Tom Ridge, the president's domestic security adviser, said the White House supported the Justice Department in its concern "about the possibility that there may be Al Qaeda members or sympathizers here in the United States." In his recent public statements on domestic terrorism threats, Mr. Ridge, like General Eberhart, has sounded a reassuring tone. In television interviews last month, he said the government was "in a much better position" to respond to threats of terrorism on American soil than before the Sept. 11 attacks. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. had no formal response to General Eberhart's remarks. But senior officials at both the department and the bureau, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the arrests since late summer, in Lackawanna, N.Y., Detroit and elsewhere, showed that the domestic terrorism threat was real. The Northern Command is responsible for coordinating the Pentagon's response to terrorism on American soil and to other domestic threats, including natural disasters like floods and forest fires. Fourteen military, law enforcement, intelligence and other agencies have representatives at command headquarters who meet daily with General Eberhart. The general said he was pleased by the cooperation his newly created command had received from agencies like the Justice Department and the F.B.I., which might have seen the command as a threat to their authority. "Frankly, I somewhat expected people to come in and be worried about their turf, their agency, their organization," he said. "But people are thinking anew." General Eberhart is responsible not only for trying to prevent terrorism but also for responding if it does occur; he oversees teams that specialize in reacting to chemical, biological or nuclear attacks. "What we're trying to prepare ourselves," he said, "is for the God awful possibility that there could be two or three at the same time, and they could be different in nature." But nearly three months into his new posting, General Eberhart said he was pleased to find the government reasonably prepared to deal with a host of threats from terrorist groups. "In terms of our ability to deal with that type of threat, I think each passing day we become more capable," he said, adding that federal, state and local governments were better prepared and coordinated than he had expected. "We have a better common operational picture," he said. "As would-be terrorists see us organize, I think they realize America will become harder and harder to attack over time." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/13/politics/13HOME.html?ex=1040872982&ei=1&en=41d0de0d0c5de2ec HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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