al Qaida is 'minor league' compared to Hezbollah

WASHINGTON - It's hard to miss the very large photograph of the destroyed World Trade Center hanging in Ralph Basham's spacious office in the Ronald Reagan building.

Basham, the Customs and Border Protection commissioner, who sits a few feet away from the emotionally imposing photograph, is reminded every day of the threat al-Qaida represents. But Basham says there is one threat much more imposing than al-Qaida -- Hezbollah.

"Al-Qaida would be a minor league team when compared to Hezbollah, which has tremendous resources and influence," Basham says. "Yes, it is about al-Qaida, but it's also about the extremists whose mission it is to attack this country."

"Our primary responsibility is keeping bad people and bad things out of the country. If there are bad people and bad things that are in the country that we have allowed in, then we have failed. We have not knowingly or consciously failed, but Hezbollah has tremendous reach, tremendous resources, and they have tremendous financing. It makes them very dangerous."

Despite his concerns, Basham does not know what Hezbollah might be up to.

"I don't think we can sit here and give you a definition of exactly where the threat would come, what the assets are," Basham says.

"If you're asking me, 'Do they have people here in the United States ready to take action?' If we knew the answer to that question, we'd be doing something about it."

He's not alone in his view.

Detection of groups or individuals operating in the shadows has prompted the FBI to ask ordinary citizens to call the agency about the smallest of irregularities.

"I'm not worried about what I know," says Michael J. Heimbach, the newly appointed assistant director for the FBI's Counterterrorism Division.

"I'm worried about what I don't know. So if I have 'X' amounts of cases, I'm pretty comfortable we have them in our radar and we are doing what needs to be done. It's the unknown ones I'm not sure about."

In other words, average citizens who may be hiding in plain sight, living as students or business people pose a significant threat.

"Whether it's an operational role they are playing here, or are they plotting and planning, whether it is material support, or be it financial support to Hamas or Hezbollah, that's the challenge we have," says Heimbach.

He says the plan for the FBI is to "follow the money, following exactly whose hands it's falling into across the ocean. That's one of our concerns. It's high on the radar."

Tracking these groups is tricky because of their varied strategies of attack.

But al-Qaida has left little doubt about one target -- Houston.

"On Sept. 12, an al-Qaida terrorist was quoted as saying that Houston remains in al-Qaida's gun sight, simply because of the oil and gas sector," said Fred Burton, vice president of Counterterrorism at Stratfor, an intelligence company that specializes in geopolitical analysis.

"This is really very rare, when you think about it," Burton added. "Bin Laden himself in the past has talked about Washington and New York, but in essence, you don't get specific cities mentioned a lot. So when you do, especially from a known al-Qaida entity, it's something the Homeland Security folks have to sit up and take note of."

Because of that concern, Basham says Customs has aggressively tried to secure the nation's borders.

"We will either have fences constructed, under construction or under contract along 670 miles by the end of the year," Basham says. "We've put technology at our ports of entry. Almost 100 percent of ports of entry now have radiation portal monitors there, as well as non-intrusive types of inspection equipment. We're putting WHTI (Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative) into place, which no longer allows anyone to make an oral declaration to enter the country."

It is an election year, and many question whether Bush administration officials and those competing to replace them are trying to manipulate the electorate by raising concerns about security or dismissing them.

Basham says Customs has to make sure it stays focused and is not distracted by the political rhetoric that surrounds a change of administration.

But Basham is well aware of what the election season brings in.

"We have seen throughout history that elections, changes of administration are a vulnerable time."

The passing of the torch from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to current Prime Minister Gordon Brown is an example.

"Two days after that change you had two car bombs that were discovered and dismantled in downtown London. A couple days after that, Gatwick airport was attacked by a bomber," says Basham.

Basham also cites the assassination on Pakistani political icon Benhazir Bhutto as another example of the need for U.S. Customs personnel to stay focused.

"They (terrorist organizations) are constantly looking for the soft underbelly," he says.

"It's been seven years since we've been attacked. I constantly remind our people that were are in a high stakes game here, and the consequences of failure are unacceptable. So we have to stay focused on our job of maintaining and securing the borders of this country, and at the same time, insuring that we allow legitimate trade and travel to continue. That's a very, very delicate balance to strike."

"I feel like we're making progress. We've made tremendous strides. We have work yet to do," Basham says.

Are there vulnerabilities?

"Absolutely, there are vulnerabilities."

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