Mideast Terrorists Said Set Up in U.S.

Major Middle Eastern terrorist groups have established cells within the United States, and in the last six months two American embassies overseas have been the targets of bomb plots, federal officials said. In congressional testimony that projected growing dangers from domestic and international terrorists, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh said he has tripled the bureau’s counterterrorism efforts over the last three years and now has about 2,600 employees dedicated to the threat. Freeh testified about the Clinton administration’s counterterrorism efforts along with acting CIA Director George J. Tenet. Faced with increasingly widespread and diverse threats, Tenet said the CIA created a new Terrorism Warning Group “whose sole mission is to make sure that civilian and military leaders are alerted to specific terrorist threats.”