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CIA director Michael Hayden warned Sunday that al-Qaida was training operatives who "look Western" and could enter the United States undetected to conduct terrorist attacks.
General Hayden also said the terror network, which over the past 18 months has established a "safe haven" in Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghanistan border, has shed its operational reliance on mastermind Osama bin Laden.
"They are bringing operatives into that region for training -- operatives that, a phrase I would use, wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at Dulles with you," Hayden told NBC television.
The new recruits "look Western" and "would be able to come into this country ... without attracting the kind of attention that others might," he said.
Hayden pointed to improved intelligence techniques in the federally administered tribal areas, due to "good cooperation from a variety of allies" in Pakistan's tribal regions, for the information on the al-Qaida recruits.
But much of the improvement was merely regaining ground that was lost through what Hayden described as an "absolutely disastrous" hands-off policy in the region by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in 2006 that led to al-Qaida's increased organizational ability there.
"He was, in fact, pulling forces and the writ of the Pakistani government back from the tribal region, and al-Qaida and the Taliban were having more and more free reign there."
In an annual threat assessment released in February, U.S. intelligence reported it had detected an influx of new western recruits to al-Qaida safe havens in Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas since 2006.
"Al-Qaida 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," the report said.
In presenting the report to Congress, U.S. intelligence chief Mike McConnell also said that plots uncovered in New Jersey and Illinois this year "highlights the diverse threat posed by Homeland-based radical Muslims inspired by extremist ideology."
Hayden also stressed that while he was confident al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden was still hiding out near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the Saudi-born fighter no longer has operational control over the terror network.
This now lies with Egyptian militants, he argued, although he said bin Laden remains an "iconic figure," and the Central Intelligence Agency is making "every effort to kill or capture" him along with his al-Qaida lieutenants.
"Let me use the term iconic figure. His presence gives a certain punch, a certain image, to the global movement," Hayden said.
"But he's not operationally involved. An awful lot of the operational force of al-Qaida -- the Arabic name is ... often finished by the country they are from -- an awful lot of them are al-Masris, which means 'the Egyptians.'"
Al-Qaida's number two is Ayman Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian militant who the U.S. director of national intelligence Michael McConnell last September called "the real intellectual leader of al-Qaida."
Bin Laden has claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, which killed nearly 3,000 people and prompted the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
© AFP
17 Comments
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Zaphod
The more mosques we build all over Western countries, and the more fundamentalist clerics are preaching the true religion, the more of these home-grown jihadist we will get. This has nothing to do with Al-Quaida or grooming. It is simply the result of our idiot concept of "freedom of religion", even for political movements.
Hughgarse
so all this time they`ve just suspected people wearing turbans?
Altria
In this month's edition:
Top 10 Al-Quaeda HOT Summer Grooming Tips!!!
You'll blow them away with a manicure and pedicure!!!
skipthesong
I don't know why this is news, they have already been using people from western countries
sabiwabi
The CIA has long hired "Muslim-looking" people to pose as Al-Qaida, so they simply expanded their range for recruitment.
outhousejt
The reason many al Qaidas are western or to be more precice American is because CIA is western and American. CIA created this al Qaida. bin Laden is a CIA agent.
Zaphod
Hello Sabi-Wabi, can you tell us what a "muslim-looking" person is? Do I begin look muslim if I convert to Islam? Looking forward to your expert opinion.
some14some
why this is news? it is finger pointing at failure of Bush-Mush alliance
sabiwabi
Hi Zaphod, The article above is about people who "look Western". Just as someone does not "look Western" when they move to the West, someone does not become "Muslim-looking" upon converting to Islam. One does not need to be an expert to understand this.
skipthesong
sabi, I think Zaphod is more in agreement with you than you think but, "someone does not become “Muslim-looking” upon converting to Islam" no so. I have several friends who converted, granted NOI, but still Muslim. It's more what they wear I think.
paolo27th
So does it mean that so far having dark skin would have automatically made you a suspect terrorist? Like you couldn't walk through an airport without being "detected"? Does it mean that the CIA has been keeping track of the daily activities of all non-western looking people living in the US? How many non-western-looking people does the average western-looking american see everyday? Does he alert the police every time? I would think not. I would think that unless he lives in some semi-segregated mid-western village he probably won't give a damm about the colour of the people around him. So why would the CIA tell us that Al Quaeda is going through the bother of finding agents that can more easily "mix with the crowd" so to say? Is it to frighten us into believing that "evil is amongst us" and no longer just with them arab-looking types? Is it to convince us that we've allowed them to built too many mosques and we've now been infected? Is it to prepare us for when eventually white american citizens will end up in Gitmo, be tortured and so on? Anyways, let the whitchunt begin!
outhousejt
CIA. US needs a bogeyman to make people scared. To shift the attention away from their own crimes.
outhousejt
___Bin Laden has claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, which killed nearly 3,000 people and prompted the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Bin Laden has never claimed responsibility for the attacks. Repeating the same lies over and over does not make it any more true! Kind of like how the Bush regime was connecting Saddam to 9/11 at one point.
conqueror_of_Uranus
John Walker Lindh.
conqueror_of_Uranus
Nick Berg. How does a White American Jewish boy, meet a known terrorist on a college campus bus and hit it off so well that he decides to give said terrorist his laptop password and database access card. Nevermind that he was already under scrutiny fron the CIA for some shady "tourist trips" to the middle east. Just when the FBI is about to put him on the watchlist, he shows up in Iraq missing his head. Just forget it, no journalist bothered to check up on him, he was a "contractor". Swallow their meaning of life.
Taka313
Al-Qaida grooming militants who look western: CIA chief
I suppose this will end up in the CIA counter terrorism handbook: http://www.highlightskids.com/Stories/NonFiction/images/NF0900_headtotoeCowboy.jpg
kinniku
Let's try to keep religion out of it, shall we? There is no such thing as someone being 'Muslim-looking' just as there is no such thing as someone being Buddhist, Catholic, Shinto, Hindu, Jewish (etc) looking. I know you put the term in quotes, but this point needs to be clarified.
As to the article, what is surprising? Of course the CIA (and most other countries' intelligence agencies as well)recruits Middle Eastern-looking people for work in the Middle East, Asian-looking people for work in Asia, African-looking people for work in Africa. So, it should not be a surprise that Al-Qaida would do the same thing. I assume no one would expect them to walk on a plane with an 'I love Al-Qaida' tee-shirt and a 'Bin Laden Fan Club' button pinned to their chests, right?