New US intelligence reports indicate that Osama bin Laden is enlisting Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his top operative in Iraq, to plan potential attacks on the US, officials said Monday.
Al-Zarqawi has been involved in attacks in the Middle East but has not been known to have set his sights on US targets.
The US Homeland Security Department issued a classified bulletin to officials during the weekend about the intelligence, which spokesman Brian Roehrkasse described as "credible but not specific." The intelligence was obtained over the past several weeks, officials said.
The US has no immediate plan to raise its national alert level, Roehrkasse said. However, the information "reiterates the desire by al-Qaeda and its associates to target the homeland," he said.
Bin Laden, mastermind of the al-Qaeda network, had contact with al-Zarqawi within the past two months trying to enlist him in attacks, a US official said on condition of anonymity. US analysts believe this shows al-Qaeda leaders need to recruit al-Zarqawi to persuade him to consider such activities outside Iraq, the official said.
Al-Zarqawi is blamed for scores of attacks in Iraq and pledged allegiance to bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network last year. Yet he has had differences with bin Laden, and al-Zarqawi's efforts are considered somewhat distinct from central al-Qaeda operations.
Another administration official with access to the Homeland Security Department's bulletin said the intelligence indicates that al-Qaeda has continued to encourage al-Zarqawi, who was born in Jordan, to get involved in terror activities against Americans outside of Iraq, including in the US.
"The intelligence continues to be analyzed by the intelligence community, and all appropriate information will be passed on to Homeland Security partners," Roehrkasse said. "The department has no plans at this time to raise the threat level based on this nonspecific information."
The department sent the bulletin to state homeland security directors. A Justice Department official said the bulletin was gleaned from CIA intelligence.
In the US, al-Zarqawi rivals bin Laden as public enemy No. 1. He is believed to have orchestrated a wave of car bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and beheadings across Iraq. The US is offering US$25 million for his capture or death.
Al-Zarqawi has run an increasingly dangerous, but diffuse, network of operatives in Iraq known by a number of names.
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