Steven Emerson: Al Qaeda Plotting to Attack U.S. Targets - Expect Indictments

By Andrew Cochran

Steven Emerson was interviewed today on MSNBC about the Canadian jihadist plots and arrests. But his most provocative comments, about investigations underway in the U.S. of Al Qaeda plots, came near the end of the interview. You can see the interview on the website of The Investigative Project on Terrorism (Windows Media file). Here is a partial transcript of today's interview (emphasis mine):

ALEX WITT: Okay, Steve, the authorities say that the suspects arrested in Canada, these guys obtained three tons of ammonium nitrate. Can you put this in perspective for us, how dangerous this is?

STEVEN EMERSON: Three tons is three times the amount that was used to blow up the Albert Murrah building in Oklahoma City in 1995. A Canadian official said yesterday it is an astonishing and startling amount, unprecedented in terms of the acquisition. Other types of arrests in the last ten years of people who were planning operations, we are talking about maybe one ton at most. Three tons is an incredible amount that was designed to carry out attacks against multiple locations.

WITT: How hard is it to get a hold of?

EMERSON: Ammonium nitrate, as you know, is not that difficult to get a hold of. When you are dealing with three tons, however, it’s going to trigger some suspicion on the part of the sellers, in terms of who they are selling to. As I understand it, the Canadian government arranged a contrived sell to make the purchase for those that were indicted yesterday. So they were in total control of the entire amount of the ammonium nitrate at all times.

WITT: What do your sources tell you, Steve? Any kind of a similar scenario, similar plots like this being hatched in the United States or have they been?

EMERSON: I think that the public will be surprised by some of the other indictments that may be issued later this year or early next year. There are various Al Qaeda cases being worked on by the U.S. government- the F.B.I., Department of Justice, Treasury- and these cases have still not been made public, and some of them involve plots against American targets.

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