Zarqawi Planning U.S. Hit?

Intelligence officials say operatives may infiltrate via Central America to
strike at soft targets on American soil

Two weeks after intelligence officials confirmed that Osama bin Laden had
sent a message to Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, urging him
to plan attacks on U.S. soil, details are emerging from one of al-Zarqawi's
lieutenants about what the man behind many of the terrorist attacks in Iraq
could have in mind. Intelligence officials tell TIME that interrogation of a
member of al-Zarqawi's organization, who was taken into U.S. custody last
year and has been described as a top aide, indicates that al-Zarqawi has
given ample consideration to assaults on the American homeland. According to
a restricted bulletin that circulated among U.S. security agencies last
week, the interrogated aide said al-Zarqawi has talked about hitting "soft
targets" in the U.S., which could include "movie theaters, restaurants and
schools."

The bulletin also notes the Iraq-based master terrorist's apparent belief
that "if an individual has enough money, he can bribe his way into the
U.S.," specifically by obtaining a "visa to Honduras" and then traveling
across Mexico and the southern U.S. border.

Al-Zarqawi's aide also revealed that his boss, after pondering the absence
of attacks in the U.S. in recent years, concluded that a lack of "willing
martyrs" was to blame. Al-Zarqawi believes, according to his lieutenant,
that "if an individual is willing to die, there was nothing that could be
done to stop him," even in the U.S. There is no evidence, say intelligence
agencies, that al-Zarqawi's agents have infiltrated the U.S. But authorities
remain vigilant.

Security sources tell TIME that just last week the FBI sent out two
nationwide bulletins warning of a nonspecific threat to railroads in Detroit
and Los Angeles. On her visit to Mexico last week, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice issued her own reminder of the border's vulnerability.
"There's no secret," Rice told reporters, "that al-Qaeda will try to get
into this country ... by any means they possibly can."