Weekly Terrorism Spotlight

Volume 1, Issue 26 (September 30)

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

U.S. Conducts Large Search for American Terrorists Trained in Pakistan

The FBI is on the lookout for Americans who have traveled to Pakistan recently and may have been trained by terrorists there, WorldNetDaily has reported. The large search is aimed at stopping a potential terrorist attack, possibly timed for around the presidential elections.

“For the first time since 9/11, counterterrorism field agents have been authorized to spy on young Muslim men and women—including American citizens—who have traveled to Pakistan without any specific evidence of wrongdoing,” the report said.

The search was sparked by the interrogation of Aafia Siddiqui, an American-educated member of Al-Qaeda. She was found with notes about planned attacks inside the United States and documentation about specific terrorist cells. WorldNetDaily reports that her interrogators also learned that possibly hundreds of Americans had been trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan.

The report echoes earlier MSNBC and New York Times reports in September that Europeans and North Americans were being trained by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda at camps based in Pakistan. National security experts have warned of an effort by terrorist organizations to recruit Westerners or individuals who look like Westerners in order to defeat counter-terrorism screening measures.

The fear that terrorists will try to launch a terrorist attack around the time of the presidential elections in the U.S. has caused the counter-terrorism community to respond aggressively to tips and other intelligence. The New York Sun recently reported that the intelligence community had intercepted electronic communication between Al-Qaeda members where operatives were told to be prepared for orders. The counter-terrorism group, Northeast Intelligence Network, has also issued a warning after observing discussion on a radical Islamic Internet forum about an upcoming attack. The group said the author of the post appeared to be viewed with credibility by the readers of the forum.