NEWSWEEK COVER: 'Target: America'

		NEWSWEEK In the August 16 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, August 9): "Target: America. Unraveling Al Qaeda's Pre-Election Plot." Newsweek reports on terrorist "chatter" about pre-election attacks and key Qaeda summits. Also: profile of the operative arrested in Pakistan who was one of the links to Osama bin Laden's chain of command; a report from the Kerry campaign; Donald Trump lends his name to a line of high-end men's wear; preview 2004 Olympics and how to maximize frequent flyer miles.(PRNewsFoto)[MN] NEW YORK, NY USA

Unraveling Al Qaeda's 'Pre-election' Plot U.S. Government Had Been Picking Up Reports of Al Qaeda Operatives Gathering on Afghanistan-Pakistan Border to Meet and Plan Casing of Financial Buildings Done Before 9/11, But Reports Written After; Computer With That Information Accessed Recently NEW YORK, Aug. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- For several months, the United States government had been picking up reports from its spies, electronic intercepts, and "liaison services" (friendly intelligence services) of a Qaeda plot to strike the American homeland before the November election. High-level Qaeda operatives had been traveling from around the world to the outlaw wilds along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, apparently to meet and plan, Newsweek reports in the current issue. These terror summits had an uncanny resemblance to the Qaeda meeting in Malaysia in January 2000 that firmed up the 9/11 plot. But no one seemed to know the essential details: What were the targets? When would Al Qaeda strike? And were the attackers already in the United States? (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040808/NYSU003 ) In the August 16 Newsweek cover story, "Target: America" (on newsstands Monday, August 9), Washington Bureau Chief Daniel Klaidman and Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas report on the investigations and arrests of high-level Al Qaeda operatives that raised the terror alert to "Code Orange." There can be little doubt that Al Qaeda is trying to strike the American homeland before Nov. 2. "We are in the midst of Al Qaeda efforts to attack the U.S. on a scale as big or larger than 9/11," says John Brennan, chief of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, the interagency operation that consolidates threat information and produces the President's Daily Threat Report. Newsweek reports that the arrest of Qaeda operative Abu Issa al-Britani came after Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM), the 9/11 mastermind who was arrested in Pakistan in 2003, gave up his name during interrogations. Al-Britani is a Pakistani-born extremist who holds a passport from the United Kingdom. Better known as Esa al-Hindi, he was dispatched by KSM -- and, possibly, Osama bin Laden himself -- to case targets in New York City. According to a secret FBI report obtained by Newsweek, al-Hindi was also "cleared for an operation against London's Heathrow Airport that was scheduled for June 2003." (The Heathrow attack never came off.) Since 9/11, al-Hindi has been living in Britain at least some of the time and was the subject of on-and-off surveillance. After the Pakistanis and CIA captured Qaeda operative Mohammed Neem Noor Khan in mid-July, al-Hindi's name popped up again-potentially as a central player in the "pre-lection" plot. Newsweek reports that al-Hindi was apparently the author of some of those detailed surveillances of the five financial institutions named in the alert. Though the casing was done before 9/11, the CIA was able to determine that the reports were actually written up after the attacks -- and that someone called them up on Khan's computer as recently as last January. Newsweek reports that someone accessed what one senior government official guardedly (and vaguely) referred to as "preparatory material" as recently as two or three weeks ago. A British intelligence source, speaking on background to Newsweek, was indignant that Americans blew a chance to secretly watch al-Hindi while he continued to move around and make contact with other Qaeda operatives. A senior U.S. intelligence official tells Newsweek that the British did not know al-Hindi's whereabouts when his name came up in the meetings of top officials two weekends ago. Indeed, they were worried that he might actually accelerate plans to strike once his casing reports were revealed. According to all the top federal officials interviewed by Newsweek, there was no real debate. Regardless of the risk of alerting al-Hindi or others, the public must be notified of the threat. The only question was how. In another development, according to the document, al-Hindi noticed that a local British imam employed African-American bodyguards with families in Montana. "KSM tasked him with traveling to Montana to recruit the bodyguards' family members," according the report, which does not reveal whether al-Hindi may have succeeded in this somewhat bizarre mission. Federal officials also brought New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly into the loop on July 30, as part of the effort to work more closely with local officials. On Sunday, August 1, when Kelly heard, via videophone, Tom Ridge's plan to go public with the threat, the New York police commissioner was unenthusiastic. Kelly refused to comment about what was said on the call, but a New York law -- enforcement source familiar with the discussion said, "Ridge was rolling with that 'the president has to level with the American people' kind of crap." At the meeting, Kelly worried aloud that naming the targets would not make the city any safer. Fran Townsend, the president's homeland-security adviser and counterterror chief for the national-security staff, tells Newsweek that the intelligence community believes Al Qaeda has filled the positions vacated by KSM and others captured or killed. The talent level may not be as high, she says, but the organization goes on. Gary Bald, the assistant FBI director for counterterrorism, tells Newsweek that the bureau has "over 500" Qaeda-related cases in the United States. Many of these will, as bureau officials say, "wash out." Most of the others are not suspected "sleeper" agents but possible sympathizers and facilitators. Read article at: Read article at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5636197/site/newsweek / (Read Newsweek's news releases at http://www.Newsweek.com. Click "Pressroom" at bottom of page.)