infidel
03-31-2005, 10:16 AM
WASHINGTON A Department of Homeland Security internal report that assesses terrorist organizations, their anticipated targets and preferred weapons concludes that the threat to the United States presented by North Korea and other countries long described as "state sponsors of terrorism" is declining.
"In the post-9/11 environment, countries do not appear to be facilitating or supporting terrorist groups intent on striking the U.S. homeland," says the draft report, which is intended to help the Homeland Security agency define its spending priorities through 2011.
Of the six nations identified by the State Department as terrorist sponsors, five of them are described by Homeland Security as a "diminishing concern." Those five are North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Libya and Cuba. The sixth country on the list, Iran, is highlighted as a likely threat over the next five years.
"Only Iran appears to have the possible future motivation to use terrorist groups, in addition to its own state agents, to plot against the U.S. homeland," the report says, adding that "ideologically driven nonstate actors" are the biggest threat to the United States.
Terrorism experts said that it was an unusual statement for the Bush administration, which has often called North Korea and other nations serious threats.
This the first time the two-year-old department has prepared what will now be an annual Integrated Planning Guidance Report, a document that is listed as "sensitive" but not classified, meaning it is not intended to be released publicly.
The goal, said Brian Roehrkasse, a department spokesman, is to focus the department's $40 billion in annual spending toward the most serious threats.
Al Qaeda, not unexpectedly, tops a list of adversaries in the report, although the authors question if the group can still pull off attacks similar in scale to those of Sept. 11, 2001.
The report, which was first disclosed last week on the Web site of Congressional Quarterly, identifies animal rights activists and radical environmentalists as possible threats. But it does not mention domestic extremist groups, like Aryan Nations or anti-abortion activists, which have previously been identified by federal officials as threats.
In assessing the most likely targets, the report says that "visual symbols" top the list, like the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon and the CIA headquarters, as do "American popular culture icons" like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/31/news/terror.html
"In the post-9/11 environment, countries do not appear to be facilitating or supporting terrorist groups intent on striking the U.S. homeland," says the draft report, which is intended to help the Homeland Security agency define its spending priorities through 2011.
Of the six nations identified by the State Department as terrorist sponsors, five of them are described by Homeland Security as a "diminishing concern." Those five are North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Libya and Cuba. The sixth country on the list, Iran, is highlighted as a likely threat over the next five years.
"Only Iran appears to have the possible future motivation to use terrorist groups, in addition to its own state agents, to plot against the U.S. homeland," the report says, adding that "ideologically driven nonstate actors" are the biggest threat to the United States.
Terrorism experts said that it was an unusual statement for the Bush administration, which has often called North Korea and other nations serious threats.
This the first time the two-year-old department has prepared what will now be an annual Integrated Planning Guidance Report, a document that is listed as "sensitive" but not classified, meaning it is not intended to be released publicly.
The goal, said Brian Roehrkasse, a department spokesman, is to focus the department's $40 billion in annual spending toward the most serious threats.
Al Qaeda, not unexpectedly, tops a list of adversaries in the report, although the authors question if the group can still pull off attacks similar in scale to those of Sept. 11, 2001.
The report, which was first disclosed last week on the Web site of Congressional Quarterly, identifies animal rights activists and radical environmentalists as possible threats. But it does not mention domestic extremist groups, like Aryan Nations or anti-abortion activists, which have previously been identified by federal officials as threats.
In assessing the most likely targets, the report says that "visual symbols" top the list, like the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon and the CIA headquarters, as do "American popular culture icons" like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/31/news/terror.html