Intelligence gathered overseas indicates that Al Qaeda still has its sights on the U.S. Capitol, in addition to the five financial institutions in Washington, New York and New Jersey revealed last week, a White House official said Sunday. The targeting of the Capitol and members of Congress — which had been known previously — came up again "as part of this continuing threat stream" that led officials on Aug. 1 to raise the terror alert, White House domestic security advisor Frances Townsend said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "There were other targets that we were aware of," she said, adding that intelligence suggests Al Qaeda operatives "practiced in the training camps for assassinations and kidnappings."
Townsend did not reveal what information investigators had seen about a potential attack against members of Congress. Detailed surveillance reports, written in 2001 on the New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup Inc., Prudential Financial Inc., the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were found during a raid in Pakistan last month and were forwarded to U.S. intelligence. Some of the files had been updated this year.
Townsend, who assumed her post in May after serving as a White House terrorism advisor, Coast Guard intelligence officer and federal prosecutor, said investigators also found less detailed reports on additional terrorist targets, though she did not identify them. She said the intelligence information gathered by investigators is much better than the chatter picked up the summer before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "I think it's much more definitive, clearer and much more detailed. I think it feels sort of more serious, more urgent than it did even then," she said. |