Results of the Terror Crusade: A bigger threat Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [Dummy, Rummy and Scummy are duhhh just finding out that --surprise!-- the Terror Crusade has only increased the threat ... and they're playing it for all it's worth.] The Guardian - June 17, 2002 Dispersed al-Qaida poses even bigger terror threat, US says by David Teather NEW YORK--The routing of Taliban and al-Qaida forces in Afghanistan has only succeeded in deepening the terrorist threat to the west, senior US government officials believe. The war disrupted Osama bin Laden's network but spread the threat around the world, according to a classified report. This seems to be borne out by the recent attacks on US and European interests, including the car bomb which killed 12 people outside the US consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, on Friday. An FBI official said yesterday that the bomb could have been exploded by remote control, rather than the less sophisticated means of a suicide bomber ramming the van involved into a concrete barrier, as first reported. According to an official quoted in yesterday's New York Times the war has brought forward a group of mid-level agents working with terrorist groups in Islamic states. "Al Qaida at its core was really a small group, even though thousands of people went through their [its] camps," he said. "What we're seeing now is a radical international jihad that will be a potent force for many years to come." The Washington Post reported that three al-Qaida members arrested in Morocco last month were said to have told officials there that in December Bin Laden ordered his fighters to spread across the globe to attack "American and Jewish interests". They said they were heading to Morocco to make suicide attacks on US and British warships in the Strait of Gibraltar with speed boats. US officials believe a loose alliance of terrorist groups is as capable as al-Qaida of planning and carrying out attacks as powerful as those on September 11. Makeshift alliances have been formed with militant groups in Pakistan, Egypt and Algeria, the report says. The FBI has identified at least seven al Qaida operatives they believe have the skill and authority to plan and carry out attacks. They are said to have assumed greater responsibility since the central command in Afghanistan was badly damaged by US and allied forces. Audio cassettes containing messages from the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, saying he is safe, and from other clerics, were put outside governments offices, hotels and houses in Kandahar on Friday night, travellers to Pakistan said. (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 source - JosePertierra@aol.com ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcov-06.17.02-15:07:57-32272