WASHINGTON, March 13: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is planning attacks on “soft targets” in the United States, including “movie theatres, restaurants and schools,” Time magazine reported Sunday, citing
reported comments by a former top aide to the Islamic extremist.
The comments, cited in a restricted bulletin sent out to US security agencies and published by Time on its website, come two weeks after intelligence officials confirmed that Osama bin Laden had sent a message to Jordanian-born Zarqawi, urging Al-Qaeda’s frontman in Iraq to plan attacks on US soil.
US intelligence officials who have interrogated the aide told the magazine that Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, has also talked about entering the United States through its leaky southern border, by obtaining a visa to Honduras and then travelling across Mexico.
Zarqawi’s aide also reportedly told interrogators that attacks on US targets might already have begun if not for a lack of “willing martyrs.”
The magazine said US authorities remain vigilant, and reported that security sources sent out two nationwide bulletins last week warning of a non-specific threat to railroads in Detroit, Michigan, and Los Angeles.
For several months, most claims of attacks carried out by the insurgency in Iraq, dominated by supporters of the former Baathist regime, have been issued by groups purportedly linked to Zarqawi’s network.
Washington is offering a 25 million dollar bounty for Zarqawi’s capture.
Stephen Hadley, the White House national security adviser, said on Sunday that while he would not directly comment on reports about the restricted bulletin because of its classified nature, Zarqawi remains very much on the minds of US authorities.
“About two weeks ago, we were very clear that we were concerned about reports, which we think are very credible, that the Zarqawi organization has moved even closer to Osama’s organization, and that one of the tasks he has given for Zarqawi’s organization, to look at targets in the US homeland,” he told CNN.
“We know that Al-Qaeda has not given up their aspirations to attack targets in the homeland,” he said, adding that the soft targets in the report “are the kinds of targets we know that Al-Qaeda has traditionally been concerned about.”
Hadley added however: “At this point sitting here (we) do not have evidence of a specific operation by Zarqawi’s organization targeting those kinds of targets.”—AFP
