Al-Qaeda Working to Infiltrate U.S., Report Warns

A draft of the new U.S. National Intelligence Estimate warns that al-Qaeda is increasing its efforts to place operatives inside the United States, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, July 12).

The assessment, which must be approved by all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies before being finalized, would represent the consensus thinking of top intelligence analysts over an extended period.

Over the next three years, the United States is likely to contend with a “persistent and evolving terrorist threat” from al-Qaeda and other militant Islamist groups “driven by the undiminished intent to attack the homeland and a continued effort by terrorist groups to adapt and improve their capabilities,” the analysis said.

U.S. officials have said on several occasions that terrorist operatives could enter the United States through Europe, where most citizens do not need visas to make the trip.

“Europe could become a platform for an attack against this country,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday on CNN. 

However, the report stated that counterterrorism measures put in place internationally since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have “constrained the ability of al-Qaeda to attack the U.S. homeland again and have led terrorist groups to perceive the homeland as a harder target to strike than on 9/11.”

The report said that al-Qaeda is believed to be maintaining efforts to acquire chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.  It also expressed a growing concern about people on U.S. soil adopting militant Islamist views.

The report’s conclusions were similar to those in an analysis prepared this year by the National Counterterrorism Center, AP reported.

In a series of television appearances yesterday, Chertoff described a “gut feeling” that the United States is in greater danger of attack this summer.  He noted recent declarations from al-Qaeda leaders, the group’s ability to train in South Asia with relative impunity, the increasing range of attacks in Europe and North Africa, and a history of terror attacks that took place during the summer.

Al-Qaeda has restored three of four major assets necessary for an attack in the United States, according to the report:  a safe location in Pakistan near the country’s border with Afghanistan, senior leadership and midlevel operatives.  The Associated Press was unable to identify the missing final element.

There is frustration among some U.S. national security officials and lawmakers that the Bush administration has continued to treat Pakistan as an ally while al-Qaeda has been able to increase its activity in the border region, AP reported.

“Is this a Motel 6 for terrorists?” Representative Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) asked recently (Katherine Shrader, Associated Press/The Guardian).

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