70,000 Names on US Terror Watch List
Officials Fear Unidentified Number Already in U.S. Due to Serious Gaps in Info Sharing by CIA, State

September 23, 2002

WASHINGTON - United States officials have identified at least 70,000 suspected terrorists around the world, according to two congressional reports, which also said an unknown number of people trained by the Al-Qaeda terrorist network had been trying for at least five years to infiltrate the US and launch 'spectacular' attacks.

The reports, based on recently-declassified intelligence and law enforcement information, indicate that the State Department's watch list of dangerous individuals contains the names of 70,000 'members of foreign terrorist organisations, known hijackers, car bombers, assassins or hostage-takers'.

US officials stressed that the threshold for making the watch list was low. But, in the reports, they also said they feared that an unidentified number of the suspected terrorists - both on and off the list - may already be inside the US because of long-standing, serious gaps in information-sharing by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and the State Department.

The reports, which include other troubling insights into the ongoing war on global terrorism, were released during three days of congressional hearings into the missed warning signs of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon last year.

The two reports were issued by staff director Eleanor Hill of the joint congressional inquiry, a group which had spent months interviewing key law enforcement and intelligence officials and reviewing classified documents.

They provide a window into the ongoing threat that authorities say Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations continue to pose to the US and its interests abroad.

But the disclosures were overshadowed by the often-riveting testimony that focused on the myriad mistakes, miscommunications and bureaucratic entanglements between the FBI and CIA that occurred as the Sept 11 hijackers planned and launched their attacks without disruption by US law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

In an interview, a US intelligence official said the reports only made public what the CIA and the FBI had known for years.

'It gives you an idea of the enormity of the task we face,' said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. 'It's a lot more complicated than is generally acknowledged.'

'Al-Qaeda continues to be a threat,' added the official. 'But they are not the only threat out there.'

The official also said the terrorist threat spreads far beyond Al-Qaeda to other militant Islamic groups, as well as such terrorist organisations as the 17 November in Greece, Abu Sayyaf in South-east Asia and FARC in Colombia.

A State Department official said Saturday that the number of suspected terrorists on the list actually has climbed to 80,000, growing by 2,000 names a month since last September.- Los Angeles Times

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