US chemical plants, other infrastructure targeted

05 February 2008 19:04  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Terrorists and “home-grown” extremists pose significant threats to the US and likely are focused on infrastructure targets such as chemical facilities in hopes of causing mass casualties, the US intelligence chief said on Tuesday.

 

Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, told the US Senate that “We assess that Al Qaeda’s plotting against the US homeland is likely to focus on prominent political, economic and infrastructure targets designed to produce mass casualties, visually dramatic destruction, significant economic aftershocks and/or fear among the population”.

 

As part of his annual threat assessment report to Congress, McConnell told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that an Al Qaeda attack in the US would most likely involve use of conventional explosives.

 

However, he added, “Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are attempting to acquire chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons and materials”.

 

“We assess that Al Qaeda will continue to try to acquire and employ these weapons and materials; some chemical and radiological materials and crude weapons designs are easily accessible, in our judgment,” he said.

 

“Over the next year, attacks by ‘home-grown’ extremists inspired by militant Islamic ideology but without operational direction from Al Qaeda will remain a threat to the US,” McConnell said.

 

He said the spread of anti-Western rhetoric and resources on the Internet and a growing number of self-generating cells in Western countries that identify with violent and extremist Islamic objectives “all suggest growth of a radical and violent segment among the West’s Muslim populations”.

 

Citing domestic US terror plots uncovered in the last 14 months - including a thwarted plan to attack Fort Dix, New Jersey, and a plot to attack a shopping mall in Rockford, Illinois - McConnell said that “to date, cells detected in the US have lacked the level of sophistication, experience and access to resources of terrorist cells overseas”.

 

“However, the growing use of the Internet to identify and connect with networks throughout the world offers opportunities to build relationships and gain expertise that previously were available only in overseas training camps,” he said.  “It is likely that such independent groups will use information on destructive tactics available on the Internet to boost their own capabilities.”

 

“The time when only a few governments had access to the most dangerous technologies has been over for many years,” McConnell added.  “Technologies, often dual-use, circulate easily in our globalized economy, as do the scientific personnel who design and use them.”

By: Joe Kamalick
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