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Al Qaeda ally may target U.S. theaters, schools
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-14 12:08
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's chief ally in Iraq, may be planning attacks
on "soft targets" in the United States including movie theaters, restaurants and
schools, Time magazine reported on Sunday.
White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley would not discuss
the specific warning, which Time said was circulated among U.S. security
agencies last week in a restricted bulletin.
![Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's chief ally in Iraq, may be planning attacks on 'soft targets' in the U.S. including movie theaters, restaurants and schools, Time magazine reported on March 13, 2005. Zarqawi is shown in this undated file photo. [Reuters/file]](xin_24030214120988229181.jpg)
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's chief ally in
Iraq, may be planning attacks on 'soft targets' in the U.S. including
movie theaters, restaurants and schools, Time magazine reported on March
13, 2005. Zarqawi is shown in this undated file photo.
[Reuters/file] | But he said the administration
was concerned about reports -- "which we think are very credible" -- that
Zarqawi is working more closely with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization.
Hadley said movie theaters, restaurants and schools "are the kinds of targets
we know that al Qaeda has traditionally been concerned about."
"But we, at this point sitting here, do not have evidence of a specific
operation by Zarqawi's organization targeting those kinds of targets. We just
don't have that kind of information at this point," Hadley told CNN's "Late
Edition."
The warning comes two weeks after US President Bush, in a rare public mention
of the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said stopping bin Laden from a
new attack on U.S. soil was "the greatest challenge of our day."
Time said the bulletin was based on the interrogation of a member of
Zarqawi's organization.
It cited Zarqawi's belief that "if an individual has enough money, he can
bribe his way into the U.S.," by obtaining a visa to Honduras and then traveling
across Mexico and the southern U.S. border.
But the magazine quoted intelligence agencies as saying there is no evidence
that Zarqawi's agents have infiltrated the United States.
Bin Laden has eluded U.S. efforts to hunt him down, and he occasionally
surfaces in a video or audiotape to show followers he is still alive. U.S.
intelligence agencies believe he is hiding in the border region between
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Zarqawi, blamed for orchestrating insurgent attacks against U.S. forces and
Iraqis, has become the most hunted man in Iraq. In December, an audiotape
message purportedly from bin Laden formally named Zarqawi as the head of al
Qaeda in Iraq.
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