FBI: Terrorists Moving Toward Greater Use of WMDs, Attacks on Soft Targets
Wednesday, November 07, 2007 FC1 <http://www.foxnews.com/images/foxnews_story.gif> http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,309221,00.html WASHINGTON - Radical Islamists who have been stymied in efforts to hit traditional military and diplomatic targets are increasingly eyeing so-called "soft targets," and could be moving toward greater use of chemical and biological weapons, reads a new terrorism threat report released by the FBI on Wednesday The 68-page report, called "Terrorism 2002-2005" and obtained by FOX News, offers some information already known to the public but also provides details of new trends. For instance, the report says Al Qaeda is looking increasingly at targeting market places, subways and other civilian sites. Those attacks are increasingly being carried out by trainees who set out to pursue their own regional agendas. The review - only the second report of its kind compiled by the FBI since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks - states that the threat of terrorism is expected to continue from both international and domestic sources. Internationally, two trends are taking place, the report reads. "First is a preference for high-casualty, high-profile attacks directed against lower-risk, unofficial, so-called soft targets, as traditional military and diplomatic targets become increasingly hardened," states the report. "Second, the dissolution of much of Al Qaeda's structure by international military and law enforcement efforts has resulted in the dispersal of its multi-national trainees to pursue their own regional agendas." The latest evidence of this trend was demonstrated Tuesday in the arrest of 20 people across Europe accused of recruiting suicide bombers. Italian police who led the investigation said the recruits were being trained to go into Afghanistan and Iraq; investigators found explosives, detonation devices, various poisons and manuals on guerrilla warfare. On Wednesday, U.S. Lt. Gen. Carter F. Ham at the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that an increasing number of suicide bombings is occurring in Afghanistan. He said Taliban and foreign fighters who have recently entered the country are reverting to terrorist attacks because larger scale operations have not been successful. In another portion of the report, the top U.S. law enforcement agency also finds that the biggest threat from weapons of mass destruction are smaller, easier to manipulate chemical, biological and radiological weapons, rather than nuclear technology "The use of WMD against civilian targets represents the most serious potential international and domestic terrorism threat facing the United States today and provides a glimpse into emerging terrorist scenarios of the 21st century. A variety of intelligence reporting indicates that Al Qaeda has energetically sought to acquire and experiment with biological, chemical, and radiological weapons of mass destruction," the report reads. "Ricin and the bacterial agent anthrax are emerging as the most prevalent agents involved in WMD investigations," the report continues. The report cites a series of arrests in the United Kingdom and elsewhere involving Ricin FOX News' Catherine Herridge and Ian McCaleb contributed to this report. (F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
