Chechen women:A threat to U.S.?

WASHINGTON – As the nation ramps up security for New Year's Eve festivities, the Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement that al-Qaida may have recruited non-Arabs, including Chechen women, to carry out terrorist attacks on America, according to a new U.S. intelligence report obtained by WorldNetDaily.

"Federal and local law enforcement authorities should be aware that al-Qaida terrorists may not appear Arab," said the report issued Dec. 23 by the Department of Homeland Security's Intelligence Analysis and Infrastructure Protection division.

The department last week put the nation on orange, or high, alert for terrorism after receiving an increasing volume of intelligence about possible new al-Qaida attacks on U.S. soil.

The report – titled "Al-Qaida Use of Non-Arab and Female Terror Operatives" – notes that al-Qaida-linked "Chechen rebels are increasingly using female suicide bombers to attack soft targets throughout Russia, such as public commercial centers, a rock concert, a theater and government leaders."

"Non-Arab al-Qaida operatives could find it easier to avoid unwanted scrutiny since they may not fit typical profiles," said the four-page report, marked "For Official Use Only."

All 19 of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Arab, including 15 Saudi nationals.

The report advises that possible indicators for identifying terrorist suspects are residency in Chechnya, or individuals with Islamic names from countries such as Russia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan.

Al-Qaida suspects Richard Reid, aka Abdel Raheem aka Tariq Raja, and Jose Padilla, aka Abdullah al-Muhajir, are non-Arabs who adopted Islamic names.

Historically, many non-Arab terrorists received training in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan.

Al-Qaida has trained up to 120,000 terrorists around the world, and some of them – possibly as many as 5,000 – are inside the U.S., according to U.S. intelligence.

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