By MICHAEL COWDEN
Associated Press Writer
PITTSBURGH- It takes a network of international intelligence and law enforcement agencies to defeat terror groups such as al-Qaida, and last week’s disruption of a terror plot in Britain is an example of how that cooperation can work, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Wednesday.
Gonzales sidestepped the question of the whether the United States moves to quickly to break up suspected terror plots. Some critics have said British agents were able to round up more suspects by watching the alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound jetliners unfold.
“Decisions about arrest are difficult ones that must be made on a case-by-case basis,” Gonzales said in a speech to the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh.
He didn’t discuss a U.S. role in disrupting the British terror plot, but said 200 FBI agents are working with the British to investigate leads in the U.S. and agents are assisting with evidence analysis overseas.
Gonzales also stressed the importance of closely monitoring extremist Web sites, prisons and other venues that have been used to recruit radicals. Academic settings, mosques and community centers could also be potential hubs for radicals, he said.
“Isolated souls may be as dangerous as al-Qaida, if not more so,” he said.
During a question-and-answer session following a tour of the Allegheny County Emergency Operations Center, Gonzales repeated also that detaining suspects without charge for up to 28 days is one of several British anti-terror “tools” the U.S. could adopt. Suspects arrested in the U.S. generally must be charged within 48 hours.
The Department of Justice has stressed that such a change in the law is not imminent. Gonzales said any new practices must first be found to be in line with the Constitution.
Responding to written questions after his speech, Gonzales denied that the U.S. engaged in torture as part of its anti-terror policies. He said prisoners are treated humanely in accordance with the spirit of the Geneva convention, which he called a “very important document.”
Gonzales also insisted the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is necessary even though it might be black eye for the U.S. image abroad.
“The perception is much worse than the reality,” he said.
Some prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay already have begun fighting U.S. forces again, he said. He did not give any specific details.