(Guardian - UK) - By May the Pentagon had spent $17 billion on its war in Afghanistan, and that has almost certainly risen to $20 billion by now. The figure does not include coalition contributions that include special forces from around the world and an international flotilla operating as a picket off the coast of Pakistan to prevent al Qaeda members slipping away by sea. The CIA, bolstered with $1 billion in emergency cash, has increased staffing from 500 to 5,000. The FBI will assign 2,600 agents, a quarter of the bureau's total, to the hunt for al Qaeda sleeper cells, backed up by many more thousands of support personnel including linguists, computer specialists, and forensic scientists. In Britain, MI5 stepped up its investigation of Islamist extremists and told its agents abroad to give total priority to al Qaeda. GCHQ (British Intelligence) immediately switched its priorities, devoting as many as 40% of its 2,000 eavesdroppers, codebreakers, and computer operators to the crisis, and doubled the size of its counter-terrorism team. Scotland Yard intends to double the strength of its anti-terrorist squad.
2002-09-06 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive