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Al-Qaeda Talking and Aiming High
Following appeared in second half of the story on arrest of 19 terrorists in Saudi:Al-Majalla, a sister publication of Arab News, reports that Al-Qaeda is preparing a new attack in the United States on the scale of Sept. 11 after adopting a new operational structure which is impenetrable to US intelligence. âAn attack against America is inevitable,â Al-Majalla quotes the militant networkâs newly appointed spokesman Thabet ibn Qais as saying in an e-mail to the magazine. Al-Qaeda has âcarried out changes in its leadership and sidelined the Sept, 11, 2001 teamâ, the magazine quotes Ibn Qais as saying. âFuture missions have been entrusted to the new team, which is well protected against the US intelligence services. The old leadership does not know the names of any of its members.â Ibn Qais mocks concerns expressed by Washington about a possible Al-Qaeda attack on its consulate in the Pakistani metropolis of Karachi, saying the networkâs target is the United States itself. âOf course, the US Consulate in Karachi is a US interest and a staging post for Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel in Pakistan, but it doesnât necessarily constitute a pressing target. Striking it is not a priority for Al-Qaeda compared with the plans under way preparing a new attack in the United States on the scale of Sept. 11.â The purported message from Al-Qaeda scoffed at recent press reports that US agents are hot on the trail of its leader Osama Bin Laden, whose whereabouts have been a mystery since the ouster of his Taleban sponsors in Afghanistan in late 2001. âWe keep our cool in the face of such reports, just as we do when the Americans say they have uncovered new Al-Qaeda plans or arrested our leaders,â Ibn Qais is quoted as saying. With the war over, expect that "racist" profiling in airports and at the borders to get more scrutiny from the press and Hollywood, now that it's no longer needed. Posted by: Mark IV 2003-05-08 |
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