Terror
EXCLUSIVE: New Pakistani Taliban Operative Feared Inside U.S. After Times Square Failure
Published October 14, 2010
| FoxNews.com
Senior U.S. officials are concerned over recent intelligence indicating that the Pakistani Taliban,
which orchestrated the failed Times Square bombing, may have
successfully placed another operative inside the United States to
launch a second attack, sources tell Fox News. Authorities, however,
know very little about the potential operative or any possible plot.
"[We] don't know who it is and don't know
where it is," one source said. "We know the guy's here, but don't know
anything about him."
Based on the intelligence, authorities believe the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, would have directed the individual to attempt another Times Square-style operation, but not necessarily in New York City.
A senior intelligence official said the
threat stream's lack of specificity makes it nearly impossible for the
counterterrorism community to defend against such an attack. Any
possible threat, however, does not seem to be imminent, with a senior
counterterrorism official saying he was "unaware" of any "imminent
threats" against the U.S. homeland.
Nevertheless, the Pakistani Taliban has
been looking to make up for its previous failure. Authorities believe
the subject of the latest intelligence would use "a similar mechanism"
and the "same modus operandi" employed by 31-year-old Faisal Shahzad in
May, mostly "because it's easily accessible here," as one source put it.
In the months leading up to his attack,
Shahzad purchased fertilizer, propane gas, fireworks and other
components from stores in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. But the bomb he
ultimately built and packed inside a sport utility vehicle did not
detonate properly.
If someone successfully set off such a
bomb, the effects would be "devastating," according to federal
prosecutors. In June, FBI agents built and tested a device identical to
Shahzad's, except this time they made sure the bomb actually detonated.
"Had the bombing played out as Shahzad had
so carefully planned, the lives of numerous residents and visitors of
the city would have been lost and countless others would have been
forever traumatized," federal prosecutors said in court documents filed
in the Shahzad case two weeks ago. "This is to say nothing of the
significant economic and emotional impact a successful attack would
have had on the entire nation."
Authorities are describing the latest
threat as "credible but not specific," and they are "very nervous,"
according to the sources. It's unclear exactly when or how the
intelligence was obtained, but one source said it was "corroborated" by
authorities. Others were unable to say the intelligence had been
corroborated.
"In many cases, intelligence we get ends up
washing out," said the senior counterterrorism official, who would not
specifically discuss or even confirm the latest intelligence.
It's also unclear when or how the operative
would have entered the United States, but the recent intelligence says
he would have been sent from Pakistan's tribal areas, where only months
earlier associates of the Pakistani Taliban trained Shahzad to build
and detonate bombs, according to the senior intelligence official.
After living in the United States for a
decade and becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen, Shahzad left for
Pakistan in late 2009. He spent five months there before returning to
Connecticut to prepare his attack.
As for the subject of the latest
intelligence, he could be anywhere in the United States, and officials
are not convinced he would necessarily target New York City.
"It's not surprising this day and age that
an individual is residing in or traveled to the United States in hopes
of pulling off some sort of attack," the senior counterterrorism
official, speaking generally, said. "We are 'Target Number One' for
terrorists, and it requires a constant vigilance."
In particular, federal officials have
become increasingly concerned about U.S. citizens who, like Shahzad,
"choose to serve as an operative for a foreign terrorist organization,"
as federal prosecutors put it.
In court documents filed in the Shahzad
case, prosecutors said that "under the cover of their U.S. citizenship"
such individuals can "travel freely around the world" and "can remain
in the United States undetected."
In a video released by the Pakistani
Taliban two months after the failed Times Square attack, Shahzad said
it is "not difficult at all to wage an attack on the West, and
specifically in the U.S."
"Get up and learn from me and make an
effort," he said in the video, recorded eight months before its
release. "Nothing is impossible if you just keep in mind that Allah is
with you."
Still, senior U.S. officials said recently
that even failed attacks like the Times Square plot can ultimately be
successful in some ways.
"These smaller attacks -- even if
unsuccessful -- may still generate significant publicity and therefore
might have both a psychological and an economic impact," FBI Director
Mueller said last week during an intelligence-reform conference
organized by the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.
Two weeks earlier, the head of the National
Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, told a Senate hearing that
"additional attempts by Al Qaeda
affiliates ... to attack the U.S., particularly attempts in the
homeland, could attract the attention of even more Western recruits,
thereby increasing those groups' threat to the homeland." And despite
some setbacks for the Pakistani Taliban, he said, the group has "time
and time again proven its resilience and remains a very capable and
determined enemy."
The recent intelligence regarding the
Pakistani Taliban has no connection to the U.S. State Department's
recent alert urging Americans to use caution when traveling to Europe.
U.S. officials have emphasized that the intelligence leading to the
travel alert did not indicate a direct threat to the U.S. homeland, but
they have been careful not to rule out other threats or to address
other threat information.
In fact, the senior intelligence official
said there are five major threat streams -- three aimed at Europe and
two aimed at the United States -- that U.S. authorities are following
right now.
Asked about "the current threat environment
here in the United States" during a press conference in Washington last
week, Attorney General Eric Holder insisted the "threat screening that precipitated the [travel] alert is all directed at Europe."
"That does not mean, however, that we're
letting our guard down with regard to the United States," he added. "We
have certainly seen over the past year attempts by Al Qaeda
or its affiliates to attack the United States. We saw that in Detroit
[with the failed Christmas Day bombing]. We saw that in Times Square.
And so we are mindful of the fact that the threat to our homeland is a
continuing one."
In September, the State Department
designated the Pakistani Taliban a foreign terrorist organization,
saying the group "draws ideological guidance" from Al Qaeda and is
"attempting to extend their bloody reach into the American homeland."
Their primary goals are to topple the Pakistani government, force
Pakistani troops out of areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border,
and to establish Islamic law in the region, according to U.S. officials.
In recent years, the Pakistani Taliban has
carried out several attacks against U.S. interests overseas, including
a deadly attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan, but the Times Square attempt was the group's first attack outside South Asia.
Last week, after pleading guilty to 10
terrorism-related counts, Shahzad was sentenced to life in prison for
his role in the attempted bombing.
An FBI spokesman said he could not offer
any information for this article, and spokesmen for the Department of
Homeland Security and Department of Justice declined to comment.
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