Al-Qaeda May Try Attack on U.S. Water Supplies,
Time Reports

July 14, 2002
By Joe Sobczyk

New York, July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Al-Qaeda terrorists may be seeking ways to disrupt U.S. municipal water supplies by acquiring manuals on how water utilities operate, Time magazine reported.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned utilities that serve cities and suburbs to review security measures, the magazine reported, citing Tom Curtis, an executive with the American Water Works Association.

No specific plan for an attack have been discovered, only documents, discovered in Afghanistan, that suggest al-Qaeda members were investigating the potential for such an attack, Curtis said.

Poisoning a municipal water supply with a toxin such as botulinum or cyanide would be difficult because of the amount of material that would be needed to contaminate a typical reservoir, Time reported. A scenario considered more likely is a bombing of a central pumping station, which might be combined with another attack that sets off fires in the same city, the magazine said.

Similar warnings have been issued to power plant and refinery owners since the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. carried out by al- Qaeda operatives.

(Time 7/14) For the Web site of Time magazine, click http://www.time.com
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