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Threat Assessment: Al-Qaeda Might Attack for Sept. 11 Anniversary British and other international intelligence agencies have detected signs that al-Qaeda might be planning a series of attacks to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, the London Observer reported Sunday (see GSN, July 3). Intelligence agencies in the United Kingdom, the Middle East and South Asia have detected an increase in communications among various al-Qaeda cells, the Observer reported. Sources within Pakistan have said al-Qaeda operatives have a three-month deadline to work with local terrorist groups to plan attacks against Western targets in South Asia, according to the Observer. The United Kingdom is believed to rank third on al-Qaeda’s list of targets, after the United States and Israel, said British intelligence sources. “The threat remains high, and the background noise has been growing over recent weeks,” a British intelligence source said. “It’s a question of when, rather than if, they will attempt another spectacular” (Burke/Bright, London Observer, July 7). Al-Qaeda Speaks Al-Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith has said the terrorist group is preparing more attacks against the United States, the Algerian newspaper El Youm reported yesterday. “Al-Qaeda will organize more attacks inside American territory and outside at the moment we choose, at the place we choose and with the objectives we want,” Abu Ghaith was quoted as saying. He also criticized the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan designed to break up al-Qaeda. “The American campaign (against it) is but a Hollywood script with its victims, thousands of innocent villagers, killed without having been implicated in the battle” (Bassem Mroue, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, July 10). In previous reports Abu Ghaith has said that as many as 4 million Americans, including 1 million children, will be killed through chemical and biological weapons attacks (see GSN, June 14). A statement from Abu Leith al-Libi, also believed to be a spokesman for al-Qaeda, said the terrorist organization plans to expand its attacks to include assassinations and attacks on infrastructure, CNN.com reported yesterday. In a statement broadcast on the Dubai-based Middle East Broadcasting Company, al-Libi also said that suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and two other top al-Qaeda operatives are alive and well (CNN.com, July 9).
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