Senator: Terrorists planned sustained campaign

The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were supposed to be the first wave of a sustained, days-long campaign of terror around America and the world, U.S. Sen. Bob Graham said today.

Graham, the chairman of the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence, told the Orlando Sentinel that hijacked airliners were only one facet of a widespread plan by a cabal of terrorists likely headed by Osama bin Laden.

Graham, a Democrat from Miami, was personally briefed about the findings on Sunday by the Central Intelligence Agency.

“There has been very credible evidence gathered since Tuesday that Tuesday’s attacks were not designed to be a one-day event,” he said. “There were other acts of terrorism in the United States and elsewhere that were part of this plan.”

Other attacks likely would not have involved commandeered airliners, Graham said.

“Not necessarily hijacking another airliner, but maybe putting a chemical in a city’s water system, or blowing up a bridge in a major urban center,” he said.

As recently as Sunday morning, intelligence agencies worried that follow-up attacks still might take place, he said.

Graham could not identify possible targets of other attacks, and would not reveal how U.S. intelligence agencies learned of the plans.

Graham also said a lack of coordination among American intelligence services contributed to the failure to obtain warning of last week’s attacks. At least two suspects linked to the attacks had, at some point, been under CIA surveillance.

“There was a serious lack of coordination among federal agencies,” he said. “There were some people with suspect backgrounds whom the CIA had been following outside the U.S., who were able to enter the U.S., which raises questions about our immigration service. And once they were in the U.S., they were able to lose themselves in the crowd.”

On Thursday, Graham is expected to introduce a package of intelligence reforms. Among the changes would be the creation of a coordinator over all U.S. intelligence agencies, to be based in the White House.