Bin Laden May be Seeking Top Iraq Terrorist’s Help in Attacks on United States, U.S. Intelligence Warns

U.S. intelligence indicates that terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is seeking to enlist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his top operative in Iraq, to conduct attacks against the United States, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Dec. 20, 2004).

“Credible but not specific” intelligence has been collected over the past several weeks, Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said. The agency issued a classified bulletin on the information last weekend.

The bulletin indicates that al-Qaeda wants Zarqawi to conduct attacks on U.S. citizens in the United States and elsewhere, a Bush administration official told AP.

“The intelligence continues to be analyzed by the intelligence community and all appropriate information will be passed on to homeland security partners,” Roehrkasse said. “The department has no plans at this time to raise the threat level based on this nonspecific information.”

Zarqawi has been linked to a number of terrorist acts in the Middle East, including the foiled chemical plot in Jordan (see GSN, Feb. 24; Jordan/Shrader, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 1).

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