FBI warns of Mumbai-type terror attacks on US cities
Extremists 'with large agendas and little money can use rudimentary weapons' to sow terror, raising the spectre that the Mumbai attacks could embolden terrorists seeking to attack US cities, the top US investigation agency FBI warned.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is expanding its focus beyond al-Qaeda and into splinter groups, radicals who try to enter the country through the visa waiver programme and 'home-grown terrorists,' FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said at the Council on Foreign Relations here Monday.
"The universe of crime and terrorism stretches out infinitely before us, and we too are working to find what we believe to be out there but cannot always see," said the head of the agency charged with protecting the US against domestic and international terrorism.
"Our primary threat continues to come from the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan,' Mueller said. 'But we are seeing persistent activity elsewhere, from the Maghreb and the Sahel to Yemen."
US, he said was increasingly concerned with pockets of people around the world that identify with al-Qaeda and its ideology. "Some may have little or no actual contact with al-Qaeda. Yet fringe organisations can quickly gain broader aspirations and appeal."
Comments