US FBI chief cites 'thousands' of terrorism cases

07 April 2008 22:30  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller said on Monday that US intelligence agencies are pursuing “several thousand” terrorism-related cases, including plots aimed at infrastructure such as chemical plants.

 

Speaking to an intelligence gathering in London, Mueller noted that Jonathan Evans, director general of Britain’s domestic security and counter-intelligence agency MI5, revealed in speech late last year that the UK was investigating some 2,000 known or suspected terrorists.

 

Mueller, on a good-will visit to the UK, said he often is asked to give specific numbers about terrorist plots disrupted and the number of terrorists his agency is investigating.

 

“While those numbers are classified,” Mueller said, “I can say that at any given time we have several thousand open terrorism-related cases.”

 

Mueller said that the FBI, the principal US domestic intelligence and counter-terrorism agency, has been able to thwart a number of unspecified terrorist attacks, “but we take little comfort from that.”

 

He said he worries about “those persons and plots who have not come onto our radar screens.”

 

“Terrorists continue to try to get past our collective defences every day,” he said. “They continue to attempt large-scale coordinated attacks, such as the 2006 London-based plot to bomb airliners bound for the US and Canada.”

 

Without providing details, Mueller said the FBI “devotes substantial resources to investigating domestic terrorist threats,” including those that target key US infrastructure and economic interests.

 

Mueller’s warning followed an earlier FBI caution that terrorist organisations are targeting US chemical facilities with the aim of causing massive off-site casualties with explosive releases of toxic substances from production sites. That caution was recently renewed by the top US intelligence chief in congressional testimony.

 

The FBI director told his London audience that while terrorist threats have changed, they have not diminished. “Al Qaeda’s core organisation still exists and still thirsts for dramatic, mass-casualty attacks,” he said.

 

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has recently begun implementing an antiterrorism security programme that ultimately may encompass as many as 8,000 US chemical facilities considered at high risk for potential terrorist attack.

By: Joe Kamalick
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