U.S. monitoring suspect groups

LONDON -- American law enforcement officials are monitoring the activities of at least six groups in the United States they suspect are linked to al-Qaida, senior government officials in the United States and Europe said this week.

Most of the individuals whose movements and communications are being closely tracked are believed to be sympathizers of Osama bin Laden who may be engaged in low-level support activities for the Qaida terror network, like raising money, relaying messages and recruiting new members, American and European officials said. The officials insisted that no evidence had emerged that any of the suspects were preparing an attack or posed any imminent threat.

American officials have limited their actions so far to intensive surveillance of the suspects, who they say are spread across 40 states, in order to gather more information about their plans and organization, the officials said. The decision to continue the surveillance, rather than to detain some suspects, reflects a strategic shift by U.S. government investigators. They said they have concluded that at this stage it is more valuable to try to learn more about the groups' activities and possible plans through extended observation than to make arrests.

"By taking a group down too early, you may be losing a lot of opportunity for great intelligence," said a senior government official in the United States, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Who are their associates? Who else is out there that we don't know of that these individuals may contact?"

U.S. officials may be exercising new restraint in terror investigations in response to growing criticism of the Justice Department in the Congress and from civil liberties groups for casting the net of suspicion too wide. More than 1,200 people were detained in the aftermath of the Sept. 11. 2001, attacks, but the roundups produced few if any law enforcement coups against terrorism.

A handful of the people under surveillance in the United States appear to be more militant members of the terror network who may have sought to scout locations for possible future attacks. However, the officials say they lack sufficient evidence to arrest these suspects on terror charges at this time.

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