Info shows Qaeda has US trains in sights

Some of the first information gleaned from Osama bin Laden's compound indicates al-Qaeda considered attacking US trains on the upcoming anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

But counterterrorism officials say they believe the planning never got beyond the initial phase and have no recent intelligence pointing to an active plot for such an attack.

As of February 2010, the terror organization was considering plans to attack the US on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

One idea outlined in handwritten notes was to tamper with an unspecified US rail track so that a train would fall off the track at a valley or a bridge, according to a joint FBI and Homeland Security bulletin sent to law enforcement officials around the country Thursday.

The al-Qaeda planners noted that if they attacked a train by tilting it, the plan would only succeed once because the tilting would be spotted the next time.

The warning, obtained by The Associated Press, was marked for "official use only."

Information on the train plot appears to be the first widely circulated intelligence pulled from the raid this week on bin Laden's secret compound in Pakistan. After killing the terror leader and four of his associates, Navy SEALs confiscated a treasure trove of computers, DVDs and documents from the home where US officials believe the al-Qaida chief had been hiding for up to six years.

Other intelligence information gathered at the compound represented a terrorist wish list but has revealed no specific plan so far, a US official said. He said documents indicated a desire to hit the US with large-scale attacks in major cities and on key dates such as anniversaries and holidays.

But there was no sign those plans were anything more than ambitions. The US official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Bin Laden's hideout monitored for months (Photo: AP)

Intelligence analysts have been reviewing and translating the material, looking for information about pending plots and other terror connections.

Even before the raid, intelligence officials for years have warned that al-Qaeda is interested in attacking major US cities on holidays, anniversaries and other dates that are uniquely American.

"While it is clear that there was some level of planning for this type of operation in February 2010, we have no recent information to indicate an active ongoing plot to target transportation and no information on possible locations or specific targets," the warning Thursday said.

The FBI and Homeland Security told local officials to be on the lookout for clips or spikes missing from train tracks, packages left on or near the tracks and other indications that a train could be vulnerable.

Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler said, "This alleged al-Qaeda plotting is based on initial reporting, which is often misleading or inaccurate and subject to change." He said the government has no plans to issue an official terror alert because of it.

An official with the Association of American Railroads said the organization has received warnings from the federal government and is sharing the information throughout the railroad network. "We are always making sure that the system is run as safely and securely as possible," the organization's spokeswoman, Patricia Reilly, said.

US officials have disrupted other terror plots that targeted rails, including a 2009 plan to blow up the New York City subway system.

On Monday the FBI and Homeland Security warned law enforcement officials around the country that bin Laden's death could inspire retaliatory attacks in the US, and terrorists not yet known to the intelligence community could be operating inside the country. The transportation sector – including US rails - remain attractive targets for terrorists.

Bin Laden watched from safe house

Meanwhile, US officials say extensive surveillance of bin Laden's hideout from a nearby CIA safe house in Abbottabad led to his killing in the Navy SEALs operation, a revelation likely to further embarrass Pakistan's spy agency and strain ties.

The US officials, quoted by the Washington Post on Friday, said the safe house was the base for an intelligence-gathering operation that began after bin Laden's compound was discovered last August, and which was so exhaustive that the CIA asked Congress to reallocate tens of millions of dollars to fund it.

"The CIA's job was to find and fix," the Post quoted one US official as saying. "The intelligence work was as complete as it was going to be, and it was the military's turn to finish the target."

US officials told the New York Times that intelligence gathered from computer files and documents seized at his compound showed that bin Laden had for years directly orchestrated al-Qaeda attacks from the Pakistani town.

The fact that bin Laden was found in a garrison town – his compound was a stone's throw away from a major military academy – has embarrassed Pakistan and the covert raid by US commandos that led to his killing has angered its military.

On Thursday, the Pakistan army threatened to halt counter-terrorism cooperation with the United States, if it conducted another, similar unilateral strike.

A major Islamist party in Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami, called for mass protests on Friday against what it called a violation of sovereignty by the US raid. It also urged the government to end support for US battles against militants.

A senior Pakistani security official also charged that US troops had killed the unarmed al-Qaeda leader in "cold blood".

The criticism from Pakistan is likely to fray a relationship that Washington deems vital to defeating the al Qaeda movement that bin Laden led and winning its war in neighboring Afghanistan.

A US acknowledgment that bin Laden was unarmed when shot in the head – as well as the sea burial of his body, a rare practice in Islam – have also drawn criticism in the Arab world and Europe, where some have warned of a backlash.

Few Americans appear to have any qualms about how bin Laden was killed, and on Thursday, scores of people cheered President Barack Obama during a visit to New York's Ground Zero, site of the twin towers al-Qaeda leveled on September 11, 2001, to comfort a city still scarred by attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Obama said the killing of bin Laden "sent a message around the world, but also sent a message here back home, that when we say we will never forget, we mean what we say."

The CIA had spent several months monitoring bin Laden's hideout, watching and photographing residents and visitors from a rented house nearby, according to US officials quoted in the New York Times and Washington Post.

Observing from behind mirrored glass, CIA officers used cameras with telephoto lenses and infrared imaging equipment to study the compound, and they used sensitive eavesdropping equipment to try to pick up voices from inside the house and to intercept cellphone calls, the New York Times said. A satellite used radar to search for possible escape tunnels.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

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