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Al Qaeda Adapts to Life on Run -- U.S. Intelligence
Friday, October 18, 2002
By Tabassum Zakaria
Reuters

Nearly 3,000 terrorism suspects in 98 countries have been picked up since the Sept. 11 attacks. But key al Qaeda leaders are still on the loose. Bin Laden and Zawahri are assumed to be alive, but even that was uncertain, officials said.

WASHINGTON -- Reuters
Al Qaeda has adapted to operating on the run after losing sanctuary in Afghanistan and recent attacks show the dispersed network is still capable of conducting strikes and is seeking more targets, U.S. intelligence officials said on Friday.

Similar to the summer of 2001, most of the threat indicators point to targets overseas, but al Qaeda, blamed by Washington for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, is known to be also seeking targets on U.S. soil, officials said.

Al Qaeda had not found another safe haven like Afghanistan where a country supports its presence, but was operating in areas not fully under government control, or underground, including inside the United States, the officials said.

"Sanctuaries are most important for training paramilitary forces. What you need to do to organize and train terrorist attacks is small splinter groups," Anthony Cordesman, a Middle East specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said. "Terrorist groups don't need sanctuaries to be a significant threat."

* 'FORESHADOW ATTACKS'
(More: The Macon Telegraph News Source)
2002 © Reuters, Ltd.

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