From the story:
"Senior al Qaeda leaders have diverted operatives from Iraq across the globe and are increasing preparations to strike the United States, senior intelligence officials told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday. They said the terrorists had plans to attack the White House as recently as 2006.
"'Al Qaeda is improving the last key aspect of its ability to attack the U.S. — the identification, training and positioning of operatives for an attack in the homeland,' said Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, which oversees all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies."
Greg
3 comments:
I think this is rather an obvious assumption, if anything I would read into this article slightly differently. The fact that they have planned to hit the White House for almost 2 yrs without success would show a victory for the US counter terror infrastructure.
It affects them in two ways,Al Qaeda has been pressed by military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan with such success that they must focus on local security and tactical integrity first over their strategic goals. That and whatever work they are able to accomplish on the global stage is being tracked and often times thwarted by the now almost functioning intelligence community that has been reformatted since 9/11.
I think this is good evidence that the US is moving in the right direction, I only fear that much like everything else the US does, once we begin to taste victory we tend to call it quits and lower our security and reduce budgets to organizations that are already underfunded thinking that all is well again. Just my thought though.
I agree with Ace. It's kind of like saying that I am planning to do well on a test... but then failing (which has happened before). It's an assumption that Islamic terrorists hate the US and are going to try and attack us, and that they are planning something potentially devastating in the homeland. I know that the US has broken up some serious plots in the past, and that they will continue to do so- lets hope they can catch them all, or at least the most devastating planned.
Having no experience in the field of intelligence, I am willing to take their word for it. However, after reading Paul Pillars chapter on "Publics", I am less likely to get all worked up about it. It seems that since 9/11 the media has been consistently reporting the increase in Al-Qaeda's strength and a new plan they might be hatching. As Paul Pillar points out, the threat of a terrorist action in the United States remains fairly consistent, but the public's fear of it is wavering.
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