http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/364/nation/Numbers_of_US_Al_Qaeda_investigations_by_FBI_tops_150+.shtml

Numbers of US Al Qaeda investigations by FBI tops 150

By Dan Eggen and Bob Woodward Washington Post, 12/30/2001

WASHINGTON - The FBI is conducting more than 150 investigations into groups and individuals in the United States with possible ties to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization, according to senior US officials.

The domestic targets include dozens of people who are under electronic surveillance through national-security warrants, and others who are being watched by undercover agents attempting to learn more about their activities and associates, officials said.

Until now, law enforcement authorities had not disclosed the number of active Al Qaeda investigations in the United States. The large number of cases suggests the FBI's efforts against the terrorist network have gone well beyond the widely publicized dragnet that has ensnared hundreds of people in the United States and overseas.

US counterterrorism investigators are unsure exactly how many Al Qaeda operatives and sympathizers are in the United States, although in the days after Sept. 11 they identified four or five active cells that they put under intensive surveillance. Many of the investigations involve people with marginal or unclear ties to Al Qaeda, and are unlikely to result in criminal charges, officials said.

But the sheer number of active FBI investigations suggests the Al Qaeda presence is far broader than previously known, several terrorism specialists and law enforcement officials said.

''It is a good indicator of the depth of Al Qaeda presence here,'' said Robert Blitzer, a former FBI counterterrorism official. ''Hopefully working these cases will lead to many more, and you'll have a better sense of the infrastructure at work here. ... The idea is to figure out what these individuals or groups are doing, what they might be planning and to try to penetrate the group and get closer to them.''

The presence of Al Qaeda members in the United States is of grave concern to senior Bush administration officials, who have issued several alerts since Sept. 11 warning of the possibility of another attack. Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III have repeatedly said they view preventing another terror attack as their main priority, rather than securing criminal convictions.

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2001