FBI Investigating 10,000 Terrorism Cases

Besides uncovering a plot to blow up tunnels in New York City, the FBI is currently investigating 10,000 terrorism cases, according to Joe Billy, Jr., the bureau's chief of counterterrorism. The investigations include cases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, CIA and FBI officials are dumbfounded by quotes attributed to them in Ron Suskind's "The One Percent Doctrine." They say many of the conversations never took place. The FBI took the unusual step of issuing a press release stating that the book was wrong in claiming that, two years before the London subway bombings of July 7, 2005, the CIA had placed Mohammad Sidique Khan, a suspect in the bombings, on the U.S. "No Fly List" and warned British intelligence about him.

What was touted as the book's biggest revelation was that al-Qaida came within 45 days of attacking the New York subway system with cyanide spread by an innovative gas dispersal system. "The plot was called off by bin Laden's No. 2 only 45 days from zero hour," according to a headline over Time magazine's excerpt of the book. But in a NewsMax interview, Joe Billy said that while the plan was discussed by al-Qaida, it was just talk.

"There was never any information acquired that furthered the plot along, that this was in the works," said Billy, who is acting assistant director over the FBI's counterterrorism division and is expected to be named assistant director. "We knew there was discussion, we knew they were thinking about doing it, we had it on good sources, basically. But that was it."

Since 9/11, Billy said, the counterterrorism effort has become broader, with more than a dozen federal agencies working together from the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) based in McLean, Va. The FBI's counterterrorism operations center is now at the NCTC.

At the same time, because Osama bin Laden has been isolated, al-Qaida has morphed into a sort of franchise operation. Inspired by bin Laden, local groups try to emulate his example. While they try to obtain financing and support from al-Qaida, they generally operate on their own. As examples, Billy cited terrorist arrests in London, Montreal, and Miami.

"The London bombings were a concern in the sense that they were homegrown," Billy said. "These individuals were not really on the watch of the U.K. authorities. That caused us to really do an introspective look here at this phenomenon of homegrown extremists." Now that more than two-thirds of al-Qaida's leadership has been rolled up, its ability to launch an attack has been impaired.

"Key planners and facilitators of the organization have been captured or killed," Billy said. "Obviously, you still have No. 1 and No. 2 who are still about, and they still have influence. But their infrastructure and ability to organize and carry out a large-scale attack has been somewhat curtailed . . . I think we've done well, meaning we in the U.S. and our partner countries, have done well to really hinder al-Qaida's abilities to launch a large-scale, multi-pronged attack 9/11-style."

The FBI counts the number of terrorism-related arrests and convictions in the hundreds, but thousands of others are charged with immigration violations, thefts, or cigarette smuggling. While many of those individuals may have been suspected of being part of a terrorist group, there is no way to know for sure if they have committed a terrorist-related crime. Under FBI Director Robert Mueller, the bureau's approach is to prevent the next attack by putting potential terrorists out of commission when they are violating even minor criminal laws.

"You can use the immigration-type laws in a positive way," Billy said. "To say, ‘Look, first of all you're illegal; second of all, you're a member of Hamas.' We have to start looking at it and saying, OK, what can we do to enforce those laws as well?"

Even though al-Qaida is fragmented, it is trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction and could succeed at any moment.

"That's really the race that we're in right now, to prevent the acquisition and use of any kind of type of WMD, to implode a nuclear device or chemical-biological weapon of some type," Billy said. "Hopefully, they're not where they have something like that, but on any given day someone could acquire something through some rogue state and have the means to bring it into the United States and try to use it."

The FBI cannot expect to find and arrest every terrorist, Billy said, any more than it can stop all bank robberies.

"The question for us is which ones do we not know about, which groups right now as we sit here are trying actively to put something together to perhaps harm us today or tomorrow?

"Do we know about all the individuals? I still think it's a small number that have gravitated to this, but nevertheless it doesn't take but one or a small group to wreak havoc on our country and change the dynamics in some way."

Each morning, Billy looks at a briefing book listing three or four threats. The book is as thick as a college dictionary.

"A lot of times, they originate overseas," he said. "Someone walks into the U.S. embassy at some location and provides information, says that I'm aware of these people who are perhaps involved in something, and these individuals are coming to the U.S. or they're in the U.S., and they're part of al-Qaida and they're looking to conduct terrorism on the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11. Another example would be a write-in to a government Web site, putting down information that is of value.

"Another way is an informant who's being operated by another country, by our own intelligence services, either here or overseas. He acquires information, relays that information to their handlers. Their handlers in turn report it; that makes it part of the threat stream."

Many of the leads are bogus. Sometimes ex-spouses or former lovers invent claims to get back at each other. In other cases, apparently suspicious activity may turn out to be innocent.

"Today, you don't avoid anything. Everything is looked at," Billy said. "The Joint Terrorism Task Force [JTTF] in Alabama may send it back to the local police, saying someone's been moving barrels into their garage at three in the morning over the last two nights, and they looked like they were chemical barrels. Or someone just bought a large quantity of . . . fertilizer from a Home Depot in Springfield, Va. He paid cash and bought a truckload of stuff. Is that a threat, or is that somebody with a farm? You just don't know."

In the case of the man loading barrels into his home at night, "The Joint Terrorism Task Force looked into it, and it turned out it was a fellow moving his household goods. He worked for a chemical company and was using clean barrels to load his china and everything else, getting it ready for the move. Completely legitimate, but it had to be at least resolved so there was no concern there . . . You're not going to take everything at face value, but you have to look at it," Billy said.

"That's what makes us work hard because you don't know what is . . . or [isn't] real."

Today, "You should feel safer in a sense because it's very unlikely that someone's going to slip one by us at this point, with everyone working at it," Billy said. "I may not catch it, but another agency is going to catch it, or you're going to catch part of it, and then I'll add to it, and we'll figure it out."

The FBI's successful effort to disrupt the plot against New York tunnels is the latest example.

At the same time, "The biggest piece for us is this homegrown extremist part where people do not have links to overseas camps or al-Qaida members but yet are sort of self-radicalizing, self-supporting, and sort of build capacity just among themselves," Billy said. "To me, that's the new domestic terrorism problem that we're going to have to deal with."