FBI: Just 200 hard-core Al-Qaeda (July 27th, 2002)

[radwriter0555]

http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/saturday/news_d324f12b6139910500ad.html


By Rebecca Carr, Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
Saturday, July 27, 2002



WASHINGTON -- Senior FBI officials believe there are now no more than 200 hard-core Al-Qaeda members worldwide.

"Al-Qaeda itself, we know, is less than 200," said an FBI official, referring to those who have sworn allegiance to Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

That figure -- far fewer than recent press reports have suggested are in the U. S. alone -- is based on evidence gathered by the FBI and CIA. It includes Al-Qaeda members who are now in custody at Guantanamo Bay.

"Everyone tries to tie everything into 9-11 and Al-Qaeda," said one of the two FBI officials interviewed Friday on condition of anonymity. "There was a recent report suggesting that Al-Qaeda is about 5,000 strong. It is nowhere near 5,000 strong."

Although thousands of Islamic extremists and future terrorists have passed through bin Laden's training camps, it does not mean they are actual Al-Qaeda operatives, the officials said.

The war in Afghanistan has dispersed, killed or captured Al-Qaeda leaders, leaving the terror network fractured and diffused.

As a result, the FBI's counterterrorism division is closely examining Iranian-backed Hezbollah and other radical Shiite Islamic groups. These groups have men, money and safe havens to elude authorities and could strengthen Al-Qaeda.