A Plague on the Nation

Al-Qaeda May Use Iraq Tactics in U.S., Report Says (Update2)
2007-07-17 11:53 (New York)


     (Adds Skelton's comment in fifth and sixth paragraphs,
report's findings after 12th paragraph.)

By Jeff Bliss
     July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist
organization may use tactics honed in Iraq to launch an attack in
the U.S., according to domestic intelligence agencies.
     The group ``is and will remain the most serious terrorist
threat to the homeland as its central leadership continues to
plan high-impact plots while pushing'' other extremist Islamic
terrorists to ``mimic its efforts,'' the 16 U.S. intelligence
agencies said in a report released today in Washington.
     ``As a result, we judge that the United States currently is
in a heightened threat environment,'' the agencies reported.
     The report comes almost six years after the U.S. invaded
Afghanistan with the express purpose of wiping out al-Qaeda after
the Sept. 11 2001 attacks on the U.S.
     Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee,
said the findings show the Bush administration was mistaken to
move forces from Afghanistan to invade Iraq.
     ``We should have concentrated our efforts on al-Qaeda in
Afghanistan from the beginning,'' Skelton, a Democrat from
Missouri, said in an e-mailed statement. ``We must responsibly
redeploy our troops out of Iraq'' and ``concentrate our efforts
on Afghanistan and the al-Qaeda terrorists who attacked us on
9/11.''

                        Debate in Congress

     The report's warning that al-Qaeda will leverage ``contacts
and capabilities'' gained in Iraq to attempt attacks on U.S. soil
comes as President George W. Bush tries to fend off efforts by
Democrats and a growing number of Republicans in Congress to set
conditions for withdrawing troops from Iraq.
     White House spokesman Tony Snow said the report's release
wasn't timed to have an impact on the debate.
     The National Intelligence Estimate, which took three years
to produce, goes ``through a very long process of scrubbing,'' he
told reporters in Washington. ``When it is ready, we put it
out.''
     He repeated administration assertions that there are ``no
specific or credible threats'' to the U.S. now.
     The report says that al-Qaeda's association with its
affiliate, ``al-Qaeda in Iraq,'' will help it raise money and
recruit and indoctrinate terrorist operatives.

                          `Key Judgments'

     Senior U.S. intelligence officials released declassified
``key judgments'' of the report today. These assessments include:
     -- Al-Qaeda is gaining strength in the ``safe haven'' it has
established in tribal areas in western Pakistan along the Afghan
border and is putting in place a stable leadership with top
lieutenants;
     -- Al-Qaeda probably will continue to seek nuclear,
chemical, biological or radiological weapons and ``would not
hesitate to use them'' to inflict mass casualties on ``prominent
political, economic and infrastructure targets;''
     -- Radical Islam is spreading throughout the world and
within the U.S. Militants may justify violent acts as a reprisal
for the recent U.S. arrests and prosecutions of a small band of
extremists. Europe faces a worse problem with homegrown radicals;
     -- While non-Muslim terrorist groups will attempt attacks
within the U.S. in the next three years, they're likely to be on
a scale smaller than those planned by al-Qaeda.
     While ``we have discovered only a handful of individuals in
the United States with ties to al-Qaeda's senior leadership since
9/11, we judge that al-Qaeda will intensify its efforts to put
operatives here,'' the report said.
     The findings generally echo the description of al-Qaeda's
resurgence in a U.S. National Counterterrorism Center report and
testimony to Congress from senior intelligence officials last
week.
     ``In many ways what you're talking about is kind of a mode
of operation that is nothing new for al-Qaeda,'' Snow said. ``But
it at least gives you a glimpse at some of the structural changes
that have taken place since the beginning of the war on terror in
2001.''

--With reporting by Edwin Chen and Tony Capaccio in Washington.
Editor: Schmick (mgf)

Story illustration: For government news, see {GTOP <GO>}.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Tony Capaccio in Washington at +202-624-1911 or
acapaccio@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Forsythe at +1-202-624-1940 or
mforsythe@bloomberg.net

[TAGINFO]

NI GEN
NI US
NI GOV
NI USGOV
NI DEF
NI CIA
NI TERROR
NI EU
NI UK
NI WAR
NI CNG
NI PAK
NI AFGHAN
NI AUD
NI ANZ
NI INDIA
NI UK
NI IRAQ
NI IRAN


#<610728.429298.1.0.38.15369.25>#
-0- Jul/17/2007 15:53 GMT