The United States remains under threat of more devastating terrorist attacks which could target its capital or other major cities, two lawmakers familiar with national security matters warned.
"I am relatively confident that it is accurate to say that the real estate between the United States Capitol and the Pentagon is still a target area," said Congressman Porter Goss, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said late Saturday.
He said Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon building outside Washington could be followed by other strikes.
There are "other easy targets, vulnerable targets ... filled with innocent people," Goss, who receives regular intelligence briefings, told CNN television.
The warning came as the US military remained on heightened alert in the wake of the attacks, in which terrorists slammed three hijacked passenger planes into the buildings.
A fourth hijacked plane crashed in southwest Pennsylvania.
John McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also warned that the country still faced "a variety of threats ... including missiles and nuclear weapons and biological and chemical warfare."
US fighter jets continued to patrol Saturday a vast air corridor along major East Coast cities, a defense official said.
US President George W. Bush has named Osama bin Laden, a Saudi-born exile operating out of Afghanistan, "a prime suspect" in the terrorist attacks, and McCain confirmed late Saturday that a US anti-terrorist strike inside Afghan territory was under consideration.
"I think we may be in and out of that country. That's one of the military options," said the senator.
McCain said the United States would try to avoid getting bogged down in Afghanistan like the Soviet Union did in the 1980s.
As the United States made preparations for a anti-terrorist military strike, two naval battle groups led by the carriers George Washington and John F. Kennedy were deployed off the East Coast to provide quick air cover if needed.
Officials said the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis and accompanying ships were patrolling waters along the West Coast. The operation has been dubbed Noble Eagle.
Meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched a search for 100 people in connection with its terrorism probe, but denied that any of them has formally been declared a suspect at this time.
"We have forwarded to the airline industry a list of 100 names of people we would like to question," said an FBI official, who insisted on anonymity -- WASHINGTON (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
