Official: al-Qaeda Planning 'Grand Finale' Attack on U.S. Soil
NEW YORK--PRNewswire--Following the deadly attacks against
British targets in Turkey last week, the "chatter" -- loose talk of threats
among Islamic extremists, picked up by U.S. eavesdroppers-was spiking upwards
again.
The traditional holiday of Ramadan, propitious in terrorist minds for great
and violent events, was coming to an end. "You have rapid-fire, back-to-back
significant Al Qaeda attacks," one counter-terrorism official tells Newsweek in
the December 1 issue (on newsstands Monday, November 24). "It's starting to look
like this could be the buildup to a grand finale on U.S. soil."
More than two years after 9/11, Al Qaeda continues to hit "soft targets,"
mostly in the Islamic world: Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Indonesia, Pakistan,
Yemen, Kenya, Chechnya, Saudi Arabia.
But -- so far -- not London or Paris or New York or Washington, report
Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas and Investigative Correspondent Mark
Hosenball, leaving many to wonder if Al Qaeda, with its very long view of
history, is biding its time, working up slowly toward another "spectacular."
For all the spy satellites and high-tech listening devices that can home in
on the terrorists' chatter, and despite enormous increases in the "black budget"
spent on intelligence -- gathering in the war on terror, the true threat to the
American homeland remains murky.
Knowledgeable officials tell Newsweek that they have no idea who was behind
the deadliest bombings in Iraq since last summer-the suicide attacks in August
on the Jordanian Embassy and the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, the
bombing that killed a prominent Shiite ayatollah in the holy city of Najaf and
the recent attacks on Italian forces in Nasiriya and simultaneous wave of car
bombings in Baghdad. There are no clear culprits.
Much of what the CIA knows about Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists comes
from other intelligence services.
The CIA has a pipeline, lubricated by large amounts of cash, to the secret
police in various Middle Eastern countries. Still, the war in Iraq has not
helped foster these special relationships.
The security services of Middle Eastern despots are not enthusiastic about
promises of democratic change coming from President George W. Bush. After 9/11,
Syrian intelligence began working with the CIA against a common enemy, the
Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, which wanted to both overthrow the Assad regime and
help Al Qaeda attack the United States.
But, intelligence sources tell Newsweek, the neocons in the Pentagon have
been undermining that relationship by accusing (without much proof) the Syrians
of encouraging jihadists to cross into Iraq and of hiding Saddam's WMD inside
Syria.
Editor's note:
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