Federal authorities have been searching for a merchant ship carrying a group of al Qaeda terrorists and a large cache of weapons that is believed to be headed for Los Angeles, The Washington Times has learned.
    The FBI has been investigating an intelligence report about the ship and a group of up to 40 al Qaeda terrorists on board for the past several weeks, but it has been unable to find the vessel or any similar plot, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials.
    An FBI official said investigators can not completely dismiss the threat, although they have "worked through this thing pretty well."
    "There's a much greatly reduced concern based on the investigation and the interviews," the official said.
    According to the officials, FBI agents in Los Angeles have been investigating the classified intelligence report since it was circulated within the U.S. government in late May.
    The intelligence report stated that a group of between 35 and 40 al Qaeda terrorists were heading for the United States to carry out a terrorist operation in Los Angeles. The men were aboard a Middle Eastern-flagged freighter that left a port in the Middle East in May.
    The plan called for the ship to unload the terrorists and their weapons near Santa Catalina Island, about 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
    U.S. intelligence officials said the merchant ship was on its way from an unidentified port in the Middle East and was due to arrive sometime during the last week in May.
    The FBI questioned several suspects in the Los Angeles area last week in an effort to find out about the shipment.
    FBI spokesman Mike Kortan said, "At this point, the investigation has not been able to substantiate or otherwise support this information."
    The threat of a terrorist attack in Los Angeles comes amid numerous intelligence reports indicating that Islamic terrorists are planning more attacks on the United States.
    Intelligence officials have said there are heightened concerns in government about attacks against numerous targets, including commercial aircraft, shopping malls, oil production facilities and subways.
    A spokesman for al Qaeda stated in an interview published earlier this month that the terrorist group would strike the United States again.
    The spokesman, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, stated in an article published on an Islamic Web site that al Qaeda is working to "strike against the United States," the Dubai-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat reported.
    "What is in waiting for the Americans will not be inferior to what the United States has already gone through," the terrorist spokesman was quoted as saying. "Let America be prepared to fasten its seat belt because, thanks to God, we are going to surprise it in a place where it is not expecting." Abu Gharith has appeared in the past in television interviews with Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader blamed for the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
   

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that U.S. military operations against al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan "instigated a dispersion of these people."
    More than 60 nations are working with the United States to track down the terrorists and are "making life difficult for them," Mr. Rumsfeld said.
    "And that is a good thing," he said. "They would be doing more terrorist acts were that pressure not on them. They would be raising more money, recruiting more people and killing more innocent men, women and children."

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The FBI has received reports that al Qaeda terrorists may be making their way toward Southern California aboard a merchant ship, but has no evidence to back up those reports, the bureau said Wednesday.

The reports indicate that as many as 40 al Qaeda members may have boarded a merchant vessel in the past month and were headed for the United States, FBI spokesman Matthew McLaughlin said. The bureau has placed a "very high priority" on determining their accuracy, he said.

He stressed that the FBI has not gathered any evidence thus far to support the claims and said no terror alert has been issued.

McLaughlin declined to provide details of the reports, but said Catalina Island -- about 23 miles off the California coast near Los Angeles -- was mentioned as a possible destination.

The reports came to the FBI's attention in May. The FBI has received thousands of tips along these lines, and most turn up empty, McLaughlin said.

The reports are the latest of several vague warnings about al Qaeda activity in recent weeks, including reports that the terrorist group's operatives could use model aircraft or small rockets to attack passenger planes or that al Qaeda may possess shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.

Though the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan severely damaged al Qaeda's ability to operate, analysts say there are signs the group is attempting a counterattack.

The U.S. military is holding a U.S.-born Muslim convert, Jose Padilla, whom officials accuse of being part of al Qaeda to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" somewhere in the United States; and the State Department says it suspects al Qaeda was behind a bombing at the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, last week that killed 11 Pakistanis.

Quoted:

Your right dickhead, I shouldnt try humor with you around boy. Just reading your retarded shit is funny enough. What are you about 20 and let me guess, you know everyfucking thing there is to know.
You take a shot at me for no real reason and then your actually mad when I tell you to go fuck yourself? Your parents must be so proud of you.
This is the spot where you tell me what a hardcase badass you are and that your gonna track me down. Jackoff.