Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2002 11:39:50 EST
From: freemanaz@aol.com
Subject: [azpeace] U.S. Increases domestic surveillance
To: azpeace@yahoogroups.com
Reply-To: azpeace@yahoogroups.com


Monday, December 31, 2001 Back The Halifax Herald Limited 



--
U.S. keeps its eye on terrorist suspects 


By Roland Watson / The Times of London

Washington - More than 150 individuals or groups suspected of links to Osama 
bin Laden are under covert surveillance in the United States. 

Dozens are having their every move tracked by FBI agents who are trying to 
learn the make-up of al-Qaida cells on American soil. Others have had their 
telephones tapped for weeks or months as the U.S. security service tries to 
build a picture of the terrorist threat at home. 

The numbers involved are higher than previously believed, and suggest U.S. 
intelligence fears that al-Qaida cells are more deeply embedded in American 
society than first suspected. However, their disclosure by intelligence 
sources to The Washington Post also appeared designed to meet criticism of 
the way in which the FBI has handled the domestic terrorist threat since 
Sept. 11. 

Former FBI chiefs have criticized the initial massive dragnet that detained 
more than 1,200 people in the U.S., suggesting that such heavy-handed tactics 
had wrecked any hope of learning more about the al-Qaida presence from covert 
observation of suspects. 

In the past four months the FBI has identified what it believes to be four or 
five active al-Qaida cells, which are now under intense surveillance. Many of 
the other operations have flowed from the Bush administration's controversial 
initiative to "invite" more than 5,000 young men who have entered the U.S. 
from Islamic countries in the past two years for interview, according to 
government officials. 

The White House has issued repeated warnings of possible future terrorist 
attacks. It has used the threat to help to drive through changes giving more 
power to law enforcement agencies, which has alarmed civil liberties groups. 
However, many of the other 150 separate investigations are being conducted 
into people whose links to the terrorist network are tenuous, or simply 
unknown. 

The disclosure also risks renewing criticism that the FBI has made little 
progress since Sept. 11, and that apart from Zacarias Moussaoui, indicted on 
terrorist charges and suspected of being the 20th hijacker, no one has been 
charged. 

In Afghanistan and Pakistan, captured al-Qaida fighters are defying 
interrogators from the U.S. and several other countries by refusing to answer 
questions about the possible whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. American 
intelligence officers are frustrated that they have gleaned little from the 
captives beyond vague warnings of further atrocities to come. 

American attempts to gather inforation have been concentrated in recent days 
on about 140 prisoners taken into custody in the Tora Bora region. They are 
being held 190 kilometres southwest of Islamabad at the town of Kohat, where 
the 700-capacity prison has been emptied of its usual inmates to house 
al-Qaida prisoners. Six U.S. intelligence officials have made nightly trips 
from Islamabad to Kohat to interrogate the prisoners, The Washington Post 
said. 

However, the prisoners, some of whom arrived from Tora Bora with frost-bitten 
feet, have given little away. 



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