SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 22: US officials have identified at least 80,000 suspected terrorists around the world and say an unknown number of Al Qaeda-trained soldiers have been trying for at least five years to infiltrate the United States and launch “spectacular” attacks, according to two congressional reports issued last week.
The reports, based on recently declassified intelligence and law enforcement information, indicate that the State Department’s watch list of dangerous individuals contains the names of 80,000 “members of foreign terrorist organizations, known hijackers, car bombers, assassins or hostage-takers.”
An official of the department said the number of suspected terrorists on the list had been growing by 2,000 names a month since last September.
The reports were released during three days of congressional hearings into the missed warning signs of the attacks last year on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The reports said Al Qaeda remained as dangerous an organization today as it was before Sept 11 but the terrorist threat spread to other militant Islamic groups, as well as such terrorist organizations as 17 November in Greece, Abu Sayyaf in Southeast Asia and FARC in Colombia.
The reports disclosed repeated attempts by Al Qaeda to recruit US citizens in its jihad against America since at least 1997. “The terror network, led by Osama bin Laden, has created front companies on US soil for terrorist activities and has acted aggressively to establish ‘operative’ cells within US borders to launch bombings, hijackings and assassinations of government leaders, as well as attacks on landmarks, government buildings and tourist attractions,” the reports stated.
