The United States may have successfully thwarted a number of terror plots since the cataclysmic 9/11 attacks in 2001, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s outgoing chief Robert Mueller says he still fears another plane attack on America with so many “violent extremists” still out there.
“I always say my biggest worry is ... an attack on a plane. And secondly, it’s a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of a terrorist and that includes a cyber capability that trumps the defences that we have,” Mueller said in a series of farewell media interviews.
In December 2009, a Nigerian youth trained by the Al Qaeda in Yemen had made an abortive attempt to bring down an American jetliner over Detroit. Also thwarted later was a plot targeting US-bound cargo planes with bombs concealed in printing cartridges.
Mueller, who took charge just a week before the terrorist attacks 12 years ago, leaves office on September 4. He will be succeeded by James Comey, a former Justice Department official, whose nomination has already been confirmed by the Senate.
The threat remains, although its nature and landscape may have changed, says Mueller, who believes the principal worry now stems from Yemen, where the AQAP (Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) is based. From a global brand run by Osama bin laden, threats now emanate from AQAP and splinter groups that are being seen as a fallout from the vacuum left behind by turmoil in the Middle Eastern countries that have witnessed the Arab Spring uprisings.
Asked if the US was bracing for an imminent attack with the approaching 9/11 anniversary, Mueller told CNN: “I don’t think so, although we have to monitor the situation very carefully. We had the reports of the possibility of an attack on our embassies in the Middle East about a month ago. We took precautions, and by that I mean the administration and the State Department. And it may well be that’s been postponed. But we are monitoring the situation very carefully.”
Analysing the threat perceptions, the FBI chief said: “There’s a different landscape out there. After September 11th, you had core al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan with (Osama) bin laden. Bin laden was killed. You have al Qaeda growing in countries like Somalia, but most particularly in Yemen. And there’s still substantial threat out of Yemen.”
“And now you have the countries in the Arab Spring: Tunisia, libya, Syria, Mali; Egypt most recently, where they’re breeding grounds for radical extremists who may not stay there, but may present an attack. And, finally, you have, within the United States, the growth of homegrown, radicalized extremists who are radicalized on the Internet and then get their instructions for developing explosives on the Internet, as well.”