Terror cop: Qaeda 'heavily damaged'

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Tuesday, January 18th, 2005

WASHINGTON - Al Qaeda is "heavily damaged," constantly on the run and so financially strapped that it is having trouble making payments to the families of its dead fighters, the Daily News has learned.
The terror group remains determined, however, to attack the U.S.

"What we see, and I'm including information we've seen as recently as this month, is that the remnants of the organization are not diverted from their goals of attacking us," a senior counterterrorism official told The News.

"Al Qaeda Central is heavily damaged," said the official, who requested anonymity. "But they're still plotting. These guys don't do anything else."

The official provided no details on the plots or targets being concocted by Al Qaeda Central, the name U.S. officials have given Osama Bin Laden's henchmen to distinguish them from loosely affiliated splinter groups.

Bin Laden's goons have complained that slipping jihadists into the country has become increasingly hard to do. Al Qaeda reportedly has looked into infiltrating the border with Mexico, but a senior FBI official recently told The News that it has never been proven they succeeded.

"People denigrate [the Department of Homeland Security] but the 'target' itself talks about the difficulty of getting into this country and operating," the counterterrorism official said.

Al Qaeda Central also can no longer field "committees," teams of terrorists focused solely on operations, fund-raising, propaganda or acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Money woes also are plaguing the once-powerful terror group.

"They have financial problems, including even their ability to take care of families of Al Qaeda fighters who have gone down," the official said.

A report last week by a CIA think tank predicted that by 2025, Islamic extremists unaffiliated with Al Qaeda will dominate global terrorism.

"I think what we'll be transitioning to over the longer term is an organization that may not have the global reach, capability and notoriety of Al Qaeda, but still is extremely lethal on the local level," the official said.