Cointel is back: meet any new arabic-speaking guys in shiny shoes?

[Nomen Nescio]

mv at cdc.gov (Major Variola ret) writes:

> http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021104-81830128.htm
> Officials attempt to get inside cells of al Qaeda in U.S.
>
> By Richard Sale
> UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
>
> Local and federal law-enforcement agencies are attempting to
> infiltrate al Qaeda sleeper cells operating in the United States
> and are using disinformation campaigns to expose and neutralize the
> terror groups that continue to communicate with one another, U.S.
> intelligence officials say. FBI officials say recent electronic
> intercepts of communications between some al Qaeda groups show that
> they are "talking to each other." "The cells are up and active," an
> FBI official said of the groups believed to be embedded in most U.S.
> cities with sizable Islamic communities, such as New York, Detroit
> and Los Angeles. In a review of ongoing U.S. operations, United Press
> International was briefed on the al Qaeda investigations by several
> current and former intelligence officers, all of whom asked not to
> be identified by name. Former CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency
> officials say the terrorists choose run-down neighborhoods because
> "in a place like that, you are invisible. People don't care about
> you; they don't want to look at you and don't look at you," as one
> put it. A former senior U.S. intelligence official explained: "The
> members of cells don't think of themselves as raiding parties but as
> the front end of an invasion." "If they can attack, blow things up and
> disrupt society, they believe there will be mass defections to Islam
> and society will collapse. They can then set up an Islamic state."
> The cells, these sources said, are made up of U.S.-born Muslims and
> immigrants from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states,
> and number in the thousands. Most are thought to have entered the
> country some time ago and are deeply entrenched in their communities.
> To root them out, the FBI has been busy developing a network of
> informers in Muslim neighborhoods, including nightclub owners,
> waiters and merchants, a federal law-enforcement official said.
> Intelligence is the chief tool in the war on terror, a senior former
> Pentagon intelligence official said. "Intelligence is really just
> a giant research operation where you rely on huge archival files,"
> he said. "It's the most effective weapon you've got." The next and
> best weapon in the war against the cells is infiltration. A longtime
> covert operations specialist said law enforcement is using agents who
> are Arabs and fluent in Arabic, who then look for ways to get inside
> the community where the cell members worship. Their next goal is "to
> find out about the social structure: Where do they worship, where do
> they entertain, what do they talk about?" he said. If it is known
> where they socialize and there is probable cause, local police might
> be able to place eavesdropping devices on the premises, he said. The
> goal is to identify and eliminate leaders, a former CIA official said.
> As the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies gain knowledge, any
> rivalries among group members can be exploited, using disinformation
> to convince some cell members that others are informers or traitors.
> One FBI official explained that the purpose is to "disrupt" hostile
> organizations, and that FBI tactics go back to 1956, when the FBI
> established its Cointelpro (counterintelligence program.) This
> official said the program pitted one group or even members of a single
> group against another "like gladiators in ancient Rome." The program
> has been used successfully against such groups as the Black Panthers
> and the Ku Klux Klan, he said