[ABC News] Pierre Thomas - Iraqi insurgents reportedly tied to al-Qaeda in Iraq considered using student visas to slip 10-20 terrorists into the U.S. to orchestrate a new attack on American soil. Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, recently testified that documents captured by coalition forces during a raid on a safe house believed to house Iraqi members of al-Qaeda six months ago "revealed [AQI] was planning terrorist operations in the U.S." Sources say the suspects involved in the effort to launch the U.S. attack were closely associated with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and the plan came only months after Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's No. 2, had requested that Zarqawi attempt an attack inside the U.S. The plan was uncovered in its early stages, and sources say there is no indication that the suspects made it into the U.S.
2007-01-23 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive