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Al-Qaida
Reportedly Plans Big New Attack
(archive) http://www.alhayat.com DOHA,
Qatar (AP) - An Arabic weekly is reporting an interview with a purported new
spokesman for al-Qaida who claims the terror network has completely reorganized.
He says old operatives have been replaced by new ones who are planning an attack
against the United States on the scale of Sept. 11. The
claims were based on e-mail interviews conducted this week by the London-based
magazine Al Majalla with al-Qaida spokesman Thabet bin Qais, the magazine
reports in an issue to appear Friday. The
magazine provided The Associated Press with an advance copy of the story. ``The
Americans only have predictions and old intelligence left,'' the magazine quoted
bin Qais as saying. ``It will take them a long time to understand the new form
of al-Qaida.'' The
magazine quoted bin Qais as saying al-Qaida remains ``way ahead of the Americans
and its allies in the intelligence war, and American security agencies still are
ignorant of the changes the leadership has made.'' U.S.
officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were aware of the
report and that bin Qais has been authorized in the past to communicate messages
on behalf of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. The officials cautioned,
however, that e-mail interviews can be difficult to authenticate. Western
officials remain convinced that al-Qaida poses a threat despite the arrests of
key figures and the loss of its base in Afghanistan. The
FBI's counterterrorism chief, Pasquale D'Amuro, told a congressional committee
in Washington on Tuesday that while al-Qaida may very well be in disarray, ``it
is a severe threat to this nation.'' Top
legal and security officials from the United States and seven other major
nations, meeting this week in Paris, said al-Qaida has apparently moved its
operational centers to new locations in central Asia. Al
Majalla correspondent Mahmoud Khalil, who conducted the interviews, told AP he
received an e-mail two months ago from the man purporting to be bin Qais, saying
he was the new spokesman and was using a list of contacts maintained by his
predecessor, Abdel Rahman al-Rashed. Khalil
said he was suspicious until bin Qais reminded him of a private exchange between
him and al-Rashed about an interview he was trying to arrange with an al-Qaida
operative. Khalil
said bin Qais gave no information on his own background but claimed he took the
job of media contact as part of al-Qaida's restructuring, which followed the
international crackdown after the Sept. 11 attacks. In
a message received Tuesday, bin Qais warned of plots ``the size of the Sept. 11
attacks'' being devised against the United States. ``A strike against America is
definitely coming,'' he said. Bin
Qais said the arrests of key al-Qaida figures, including suspected Sept. 11
mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would have little effect on the organization
because old timers had been replaced by newcomers ``who have a very good
security cover.''
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