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Politics : Terrorism -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (478)	4/1/2003 3:11:05 PM
From: Cage Rattler	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 642

Quoting Jane's -- 01 April 2003 Dragnet tightens on Al Qaeda, Iraq poses terrorist threat Richard Evans Iraq may be planning terrorist attacks on US interests using its overseas diplomatic missions and personnel, a US State Department official has warned. In an address to the House International Relations committee on the threat of terrorism, Counterterrorism Ambassador J Cofer Black said there were 'strong indications' that Iraqi intelligence officers had recently assumed greater control over Iraq's foreign embassies. "This activity is of particular concern especially in the light of additional indications that Baghdad may instruct its representatives overseas to take actions against Western interests," Black said. The US, he added, has already been urging other countries to expel Iraqi diplomats 'in order to minimise this threat'. The nation should also be prepared for the possibility of attacks by lone individuals acting out of a sense of grievance over the war in Iraq. "During the 1991 conflict with Iraq, there were about 200 such incidents, most of them minor," he said. "With several major exceptions, they were conducted primarily by groups or individuals with no known connections to Iraq." However, Black told the House that the US currently faced not only the threat of Iraqi-sponsored terrorism, but terrorism orchestrated by Al Qaeda, which might seek to portray itself as defender of Iraqi Muslims by mounting attacks on US interests. "Small and large-scale attacks in various parts of the world are likely. There have been reports in recent months of suspicious activities around military facilities, ports, and other facilities such as bridges and power plants that have economic as well as symbolic significance." Black told the House that since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the US and its allies had detained several key Al Qaeda suspects across the globe and disrupted numerous plots. "It [Al Qaeda] is not the organisation that it was previously," he claimed. "It is under stress and its leaders worry more about capture than initiating multiple large-scale attacks."