Washington
Post...
Al-Qaeda data yield
details of planned plots
By Joby Warrick
Published May 5
Documents seized in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound have yielded
a bonanza of new intelligence, from names and locations of terrorist
suspects to chilling details of al-Qaeda plots to attack targets in the
United States and beyond, U.S. officials said Thursday.
Among the files recovered from captured computers and flash drives were
documents detailing a previously unknown plan to attack the U.S.
commuter rail network, intelligence officials confirmed. The plan,
which described a sabotage attack to occur on this year’s 10th
anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was being actively
considered as recently as February 2010, Obama administration officials
said.
There was no evidence that the plot ever advanced beyond the conceptual
stage, the officials stressed.
Other gleanings from the roughly 100 pieces of computer gear seized
Sunday included possible leads on the whereabouts of other senior
al-Qaeda leaders. While intelligence officials declined to comment on
specific tips, a key congressional leader briefed on the findings
suggested that the search for al-Qaeda’s No. 2 leader was in a newly
active phase.
“We have lots of information on him,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.),
chairman of the House intelligence committee. “I can’t say it’s
imminent, but I do believe we’re hot on the trail.”
Rogers predicted that the intelligence leads from the bin Laden raid
are “going to be a good for the global war on terrorism in the months
ahead.”
The CIA and other intelligence agencies have been working intently
since Sunday to download files and images from the computers, hard
drives, flash drives and DVDs found in bin Laden’s hideout in the
northeastern Pakistani city of Abbottabad. Navy SEALs who shot and
killed the al-Qaeda leader hauled away boxes of such material after the
raid, and also found phone numbers and cash sewed into bin Laden’s
clothing.
The task of identifying and exploiting intelligence tips has been
assigned extraordinary urgency, since the raid likely alerted top
al-Qaeda figures that their safe houses and plans may have been
compromised, said a U.S. official familiar with the CIA’s scouring of
the bin Laden trove.
“Other leaders of al-Qaeda should be concerned,” said the official, who
agreed to discuss the ongoing operation on the condition of anonymity.
“The U.S. government is on to many of them.”
U.S. officials confirmed that the seized computers and files did
contain references to plots, though in many cases the documents
described plans that appeared to be only aspirational. Until this week
it was not publicly known that al-Qaeda had recently contemplated a
railway attack on the Sept. 11 anniversary, though the intelligence
community has long known of al-Qaeda ambitions to launch terrorist
attacks on U.S. rail and subway stations.
As a precaution, the Department of Homeland Security sent out an alert
Thursday advising federal, state and local agencies about the new
evidence of a possible rail plot.
“As of February 2010, al-Qaeda was allegedly contemplating conducting
an operation against trains at an unspecified location in the United
States on the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001,” said department
said in its advisory. “As one option, al-Qaeda was looking into trying
to tip a train by tampering with the rails so that the train would fall
off the track at either a valley or a bridge.”
DHS press secretary Matt Chandler said there was no evidence that the
plans had been updated since February 2010, and the plot information
was based on “initial reporting which is often misleading or
inaccurate.”
“We have no information of any imminent terrorist threat to the U.S.
rail sector,” Chandler said.
As a precaution, the department has ordered or encouraged additional
security measures as a precaution, including the deployment of
additional security officers at airports and other transportation
facilities, he said.
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Read it at the Washington Post
|
