US Main Intelligence Says Al-Qaeda Remains a Threat

The director of the CIA -- the main US intelligence agency, said Wednesday that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist group remains a serious threat, interested in striking "high-profile" American targets including the Olympics that open Friday in Salt Lake City.

George Tenet, facing tough questions about Sept. 11, also acknowledged that the CIA never will be able to foresee all attacks.

"We know they will continue to plan, we know they will hurt us again," Tenet said. "We have to minimize their ability to do so because there is no perfection in this business."

In his first testimony to Congress since the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the head of America's intelligence service outlined a wide range of threats against the United States and said al-Qaeda remains the most immediate.

Its terrorists have considered attacks against high-profile US government or private facilities, famous landmarks and airports, bridges, harbors and dams, Tenet said.

"High-profile events such as the Olympics or last weekend's Super Bowl also fit the terrorists' interests in striking another blow within the United States that would command worldwide media attention," Tenet told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Security officials at the Olympics have said they are not aware of any specific threat to the games.

"Their modus operandi is to continue to have multiple attack plans in the works simultaneously and to have al-Qaeda cells in place to conduct them," Tenet said.

The US-led war on terrorism has brought arrests of nearly 1,000 al-Qaeda operatives in more than 60 countries, and ruined the group's ability to train recruits in Afghan camps, he said.

"That said, I must repeat, al-Qaeda has not yet been destroyed," Tenet told lawmakers.

He refused to discuss bin Laden's possible whereabouts during the public hearing.

"Why were we utterly unaware of the planning and execution of the Sept. 11 attacks? In other words, what went wrong?" asked Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.

Tenet, visibly bristling, said the CIA had known "in broad terms" last summer -- and had warned US officials -- that bin Laden might attack targets inside the United States. But the CIA had no specific knowledge predicting the Sept. 11 attacks.

The CIA did thwart attacks on three or four US facilities overseas last summer, Tenet said. It has disrupted "numerous terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, and we will continue to do so."

Americans wonder why, as they sit chatting in cafes, if American Taliban John Walker Lindh could meet bin Laden, the CIA could not get an agent near him, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., told the CIA director.

(China Daily February 7, 2002)