Al-Qaeda Targets America for Another Attack

Photo courtesy of the Kuwait Times

KUWAIT TIMES: WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda has regrouped in its Pakistani "safe haven" and is determined to inflict mass casualties through new attacks on the United States, a US intelligence report warned yesterday, adding the group will likely try to use battle-hardened associates in Iraq to strike inside the US. Osama bin Laden's extremist group remains bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear and biological arms, "and would not hesitate to use them" if it develops the capability, the report said.

The "key judgements" on the terrorist threat to the United States, contained in a new National Intelligence Estimate, concluded that Al-Qaeda was gaining strength in a lawless zone of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan. "As a result, we judge the United States currently is in a heightened threat environment," said the report, which comes nearly six years after the September 11, 2001 attacks in which some 3,000 people were killed.

The report's findings, which were leaked to the US press last week, have already prompted angry reactions from Democrats who accuse President George W Bush of making the United States more vulnerable by invading Iraq. But yesterday, Bush's top counter-terrorism aide hit back saying Washington rarely gets all of the help it wants from allies like Pakistan in its efforts to hunt down violent extremists. "When people ask me about our counter-terrorism cooperation, our allies around the world, the suggestion is: 'Do they give you everything you want?' That is almost never the case," said Frances Townsend. Qaeda determined to hit US (more)

Mark Alexander