Al-Qaeda in Pakistan Is Weakest Since 2001, U.S. Anti-Terror Official Says

[Creder]

Al-Qaeda’s command structure in Pakistan is “weaker” than at any point since the U.S. invaded neighboring Afghanistan in 2001, forcing the group to rely on allies and sympathizers to carry out attacks, a top U.S. anti- terrorism official said.

In the past 19 months, al-Qaeda in Pakistan “has been restricted considerably,” National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today.

Al-Qaeda now is targeting the U.S. by using branches in other countries such as Yemen, U.S. citizens inspired by proselytizing on the Internet and radical religious leaders, Leiter testified. Militants also are plotting less-spectacular attacks than those of Sept. 11, 2001, which killed almost 3,000 people, said Senator Susan Collins of Maine.

“I am convinced that terrorists are beginning to focus their efforts on small-scale attacks with small arms and explosives,” said Collins, the committee’s senior Republican.

The changing tactics and al-Qaeda’s increasing willingness to use Westerners and unaffiliated sympathizers have made it “more difficult for law enforcement and the intelligence community to detect” plots, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

U.S. military officials have charged Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan with killing 13 and injuring 43 in a Nov. 5 shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas. U.S. intelligence agencies before the attack intercepted communications between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim cleric in Yemen who supports violence against U.S. targets.

Officials said about 20 men, all but one of Somali descent, traveled from the Minneapolis area to Somalia between September 2007 and October 2009 to train with al-Shabaab, a militant group with links to al-Qaeda.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Bliss in Washington jbliss@bloomberg.net

 

[seekers]

Al-Qaeda’s command structure in Pakistan is “weaker” than at any point since the U.S. invaded neighboring Afghanistan in 2001, forcing the group to rely on allies and sympathizers to carry out attacks, a top U.S. anti- terrorism official said.

In the past 19 months, al-Qaeda in Pakistan “has been restricted considerably,” National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today.

Al-Qaeda now is targeting the U.S. by using branches in other countries such as Yemen, U.S. citizens inspired by proselytizing on the Internet and radical religious leaders, Leiter testified. Militants also are plotting less-spectacular attacks than those of Sept. 11, 2001, which killed almost 3,000 people, said Senator Susan Collins of Maine.

“I am convinced that terrorists are beginning to focus their efforts on small-scale attacks with small arms and explosives,” said Collins, the committee’s senior Republican.

The changing tactics and al-Qaeda’s increasing willingness to use Westerners and unaffiliated sympathizers have made it “more difficult for law enforcement and the intelligence community to detect” plots, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

U.S. military officials have charged Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan with killing 13 and injuring 43 in a Nov. 5 shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas. U.S. intelligence agencies before the attack intercepted communications between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim cleric in Yemen who supports violence against U.S. targets.

Officials said about 20 men, all but one of Somali descent, traveled from the Minneapolis area to Somalia between September 2007 and October 2009 to train with al-Shabaab, a militant group with links to al-Qaeda.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Bliss in Washington jbliss@bloomberg.net

I don't think that US. is unaware about the thousand of wahabi saudi funded madressas/mosques that have key role in brain washing of recent attackers in US. and europe.

 

[muse]

don't think that US. is unaware about the thousand of wahabi saudi funded madressas/mosques that have key role in brain washing of recent attackers in US. and europe.

It's mostly Pakistanis who do not know this - and worst still, when they are told of this, they do not believe it that Saudi Wahabi are destroying Pakistan and Islam.