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Future Attack on U.S. By Al-Qa’eda “Almost A
Certainty”: Cheney
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Cheney |
WASHINGTON
D.C., May 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. Vice President
Dick Cheney announced Sunday that a future attack by the Al-Qa’eda
network “was almost a certainty,” as senior administration
officers warned of increased activity that could suggest an impending
attack, news agencies reported.
Cheney’s
comments on “Fox News Sunday” came as CNN and the New York
Times released reports stating that senior U.S. officials claim
they have recently “intercepted chatter” that could indicate an
impending attack, but did not say where, when or how the alleged
attack my be carried out.
"I
think the prospects of a future attack on the U.S. is almost a
certainty. It could happen tomorrow, next week, next year, but they're
going to keep trying," Cheney said.
Asked
if Osama bin Laden's Al-Qa’eda network, believed to be behind the
brutal September 11 attacks against the United States, could be
planning to strike the United States again, Cheney answered, "We
assume they are."
"There
is a certain level of noise that would indicate that those efforts are
continuing," he said.
"There's
a great temptation for people to look back at September 11 saying that
we haven't been hit in eight months, therefore the threats have gone
away. "I don't think that is the case," he added.
Intelligence
analysts have reported increased communications among Al-Qa’eda
cells around the world, which they said could be an indication that
preparations for a new terrorist attack against the United States
could be underway.
Cheney
said potential targets included modes of transportation, trains, and
so on. "There is information collected or that comes to our
attention that suggests every imaginable conveyance, type of facility,
building, geographic location," he said, adding, "A lot of
it turns out to be false reporting."
"A
lot of it, I think, may be attributed to efforts to deliberately
obfuscate. In other cases, it's nuts."
Meanwhile,
CNN reported senior U.S. intelligence officials as stating, “There
has been an increased level of chatter and activity."
The
official said the information U.S. intelligence agencies have noticed
over the past "couple of months" is "non-specific in
nature ... not specific as to time, date [or] method," CNN
stated.
The
news agency also stated that the reports were confirmed by another
government official who said that the volume of communications among
suspected Al-Qa’eda operatives "has definitely picked up in the
last month or so" and characterized them as "troubling"
and having prompted a "heightened level of concern."
The
source added that both the volume and pattern of the communications
were similar to those of messages intercepted in the months before the
September 11 attacks, CNN reported.
"The
credibility of some of the information is questionable,"
cautioned the source, but did indicate signs pointing to a possible
attack overseas, CNN went on to say.
The
New York Times reported on its Web site Saturday that American
intelligence agencies have intercepted a series of messages among Al
Qa’eda operatives over the last few months, suggesting the network
could be planning an attack "as big or bigger" than the
September 11 attacks, the report stated.
"There's
just a lot of chatter in the system again," the New York Times
reported. "We are actively pursuing it and trying to see what's
going on here."
The
New York Times went on to say that similar chatter was
intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies prior to the September 11
attacks.
The
report went on to say that U.S. intelligence officials were trying to
avoid mistakes that have recently brought a furor against the Bush
Administration and intelligence officials who were reported this week
to have had information regarding a possible attack prior to September
11.
Meanwhile,
the Sunday Times reported that a video featuring Al-Qaeda leader Osama
bin Laden uncovered in Britain has sparked new claims that the
suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks is still alive, AFP
reported.
The
paper said the video was obtained by a British-based Islamic news
agency, which claims that Pakistani intelligence officials, who
supplied the film, said that part of the footage was filmed just eight
weeks ago.
If
that is true, the film would be the first hard evidence that Bin-Laden
survived the US-led military assaults on the Tora Bora, eastern
Afghanistan, AFP said.
The
40-minute film came to Britain on an encrypted CD-ROM and was decoded
by the agency based in Birmingham, central England, last week, the
British weekly said.
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