Officials see signs of al-Qaida in bomb plot

WASHINGTON – Strong indications of an al-Qaida link to the alleged airline bomb plot uncovered in London on Thursday suggest that the terrorist network has survived and adapted despite heavy blows to its leadership and organizational structure over the past five years, U.S. intelligence officials said.

The possible evidence of an al-Qaida footprint, officials said, includes the trips made by several of the alleged plotters to Pakistan, where remaining al-Qaida leaders are believed to be ensconced, and the sophistication and scope of plans to simultaneously attack aircraft headed toward the United States. The plot, as outlined here and in London, closely parallels one begun and aborted by al-Qaida a decade ago.

Neither U.S. nor British officials were prepared Thursday to proclaim definitive evidence of direct involvement by Osama bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. They acknowledged that their conclusions are to some extent inferential and based on bin Laden’s repeated warnings of another major assault, the organization’s known affinity for targeting commercial airliners and their belief that no other terrorist group has the brains or the capability to plan such an audacious undertaking.

Elements of the unfolding plot reflect their assessment of a newly evolved al-Qaida strategy that depends – unlike the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 – on the Internet; indirect, local recruitment of disaffected Muslim youth; and an emphasis on European passport-holders less likely to be stopped at airports.

“It tells you that the enemy, as the military is fond of saying, is both thinking and adaptable,” one official said.

Although terrorist groups in Iraq and elsewhere have long been described as having al-Qaida links, none of the significant attacks carried out since Sept. 11 have been proven to have been directly authored or orchestrated by the group. Instead, intelligence agencies here and in Europe have described bin Laden as providing “inspiration” to a new generation of “radicalized” Muslim youth spurred by their cultural isolation in the West and solidarity with Islamic battles in the Middle East. U.S. intelligence officials now identify the war in Iraq as the single most effective recruiting tool for Islamic militants.

But the alleged British plot, one intelligence official insisted Thursday, “is really, really serious. This is the real deal. Honestly. This was not the Moorish Nation,” he said, referring to the arrest this summer in Miami of a rag-tag, FBI-infiltrated group allegedly plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago. “We have reason to believe that this is an al-Qaida-related operation. I don’t mean in terms of a bunch of wannabes finding inspiration” in bin Laden.