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Al-Qaeda After 9/11

By John Scott, Fox News

June 19, 2006

Transcript

John: What about the terrorists who were supposed to carry out this attack, are they still hanging around waiting for the go signal? Let’s talk with former Indiana congressman and a member of the 9/11 Commission, Tim Roemer. Congressman Roemer, is this a plot that the 9/11 Commission heard about?

Tim Roemer: I certainly wasn’t aware of, in my role as a 9/11 Commissioner about the details, John. But I think what this does tell us, this proposed plot that Ron Suskind writes about in his new book, that al-Qaeda is changing post-9/11, their operation, their communications and their tactics, and whether it’s a soft target in a Madrid train or a subway in London, or whether it’s an effort to get fertilizer in Toronto, they’re becoming more and more fluid and dynamic and the United States government has to adopt its strategy.

John: Well, interesting this plot that Suskind talks about was apparently cancelled on orders of number two guy in al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri. If in fact al-Qaeda is becoming a more fluid sort of autonomous organization with individual cells sort of operating at whim, it would seem like they could put this kind of a plot together again if they wanted to.

Tim Roemer: Well it’s unclear in my reading of the reports on Ron’s book, as to whether or not this cell was in fact in the United States, whether it was ready to go. What we have learned John, from Toronto and Madrid and Bali and other places, is that they don’t necessarily go back up through the chain of command to bin Laden and Zawahiri like they did pre-9/11. That kind of operations and communications has changed.

John: When you heard the clip there from Senator Schumer, saying that this kind of thing shows that New York City needs more homeland security funding not less. Does this recast the argument over that 40% cut?

Tim Roemer: The 9/11 Commission was very adamant about this point and we said that pork-barrel politics has to end and we have to come up with a strategy and funding formula based on risk and vulnerability. That would mean that New York City should get more funds, that they shouldn’t have been cut; certainly the Homeland Security Department, I think is in fact trying to change the formula it just wasn’t applied very effectively with regard to Washington and New York.

John: Congressman Tim Roemer, thank you.

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