Fighting terror

U.S. fourth most likely for attack, new report says

LONDON - The United States is the fourth most likely of 186 countries to be the target of a terrorist attack within the next 12 months, a research company in London says in a report to be released on Monday.

The company, World Markets Research Center, ranks Colombia, Israel and Pakistan as the only countries with a greater terror risk than the United States in the report, called the World Terrorism Index. The company provides research on the risk of terrorism for 500 public and private multinational clients. They include the European Commission, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, General Motors, Microsoft, Intel, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble and Shell Services International.

"Another Sept. 11-style terrorist attack in the United States is highly likely," the report states. "Networks of militant Islamist groups are less extensive in the U.S. than they are in Western Europe, but U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan and Iraq has exacerbated anti-U.S. sentiment."

Guy Dunn, a company director and the author of the report, described the following as criteria used for the rankings: motivation of terrorist groups, the presence of terror cells, the scale and frequency of past attacks, the ability of terror groups to organize and get weapons and the ability of the government to prevent the attacks. Each of the five categories is weighted, he said, with the motivation of terrorist groups receiving the most emphasis.

Colombia's government has struggled to control acts of violence by warring leftist guerrillas and rightist paramilitary groups. Israel is teetering on a shaky cease-fire and Pakistan's government has struggled to stop the activities "of individuals and cells that espouse and pursue terrorism," the report says.

Dunn said Iraq had moved up the list from near the bottom. "Iraq was actually in the bottom 10 before the war," he said. "But now with a political vacuum existing, and heavily armed factions, the climate is ripe for terrorism."

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush on Saturday thanked Thailand's prime minister for his country's help in capturing an alleged al-Qaida mastermind, and promised Indonesia's leader that information from the man's interrogation would be shared.

Bush, back at his ranch after a two-day California trip, also discussed recent advances in the war on terror in phone calls with the leaders of Russia and Saudi Arabia.

The suspected al-Qaida leader, Hambali, an Indonesian whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, was arrested Monday in Thailand.

Malaysia and Indonesia have expressed interest in interrogating Hambali about his role in attacks in those countries, including the October suicide bombings in Bali, Indonesia, that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

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