FBI director: Nearly 100 terror attacks thwarted since 9/11
Mueller is seen with Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) in the background during a November 13 news conference in Washington. (William Philpott/Reuters)
WASHINGTON -- Nearly 100 terrorist attacks, some intended to take place on U.S. soil, have been thwarted since Sept. 11, 2001, FBI Director Robert Mueller says. But he warns that many potential terrorists remain at large in the United States.
"We will be at war until we make certain that every member of al-Qaida is incapacitated in his or her ability to harm the United States," Mueller told The Associated Press.
In a wide-ranging, almost hourlong interview in his seventh-floor conference room at FBI headquarters, Mueller also rejected proposals to shift counterintelligence duties from the FBI to a new agency. He said punishment is not the answer for mistakes by individual FBI agents before the Sept. 11 attacks.
On terrorism, Mueller said "tens of attacks, probably close to a hundred around the world" have been stopped in the past 15 months. He credited better intelligence gathering and...
