Al-Qaeda again capable of U.S. strike, report says

[underpants]

Source: Globe and Mail

CHICAGO — Leaked U.S. threat assessments rattled Washington Thursday with findings that al-Qaeda has regrouped at levels not seen since the 2001 World Trade Center attacks and is capable of launching deadly new assaults inside the United States.

Democrats used the intelligence to charge that the Bush administration has badly bungled its war on terrorism by focusing on Iraq and ignoring the tribal regions of Pakistan, where al-Qaeda has found a haven.

President George W. Bush dismissed the threat assessments as overblown and urged the United States to redouble its war efforts. “There is a perception in the coverage that al-Qaeda may be as strong today as they were prior to September the 11th. That's just simply not the case,” Mr. Bush told reporters at the White House.

The President acknowledged, however, that Osama bin Laden and his group “are still a threat. They are still dangerous. And that is why it is important that we succeed in Afghanistan and Iraq and anywhere else we find them.”



Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070713.terror13GTA/BNStory/Front

[Raven]

1. "anywhere else we find them"??????? What other countries

are we going to attack? Iran?

[underpants]

2. al-Qaeda Works to Plant U.S. Operatives

Source: ABC News

New Intelligence Report: al-Qaida Renewing Efforts to Sneak Terror Plotters Into U.S.

Al-Qaida is stepping up its efforts to sneak terror operatives into the United States and has acquired most of the capabilities it needs to strike here, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment, The Associated Press has learned.

The draft National Intelligence Estimate is expected to paint an ever-more-worrisome portrait of al-Qaida's ability to use its base along the Pakistan-Afghan border to launch and inspire attacks against the United States over the next several years.


Yet, the government's top analysts concluded that U.S. soil has become a harder target for the extremist network, thanks to worldwide counterterror efforts since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Among the key findings of the classified estimate, which is still in draft form and must be approved by all 16 U.S. spy agencies:



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3372176

[woodsprite]

3. OK, I thought they already had them in the WH and DHS, FDA

.... you name it. Maybe the politican ones don't count.

[pinto]

4. I note that in this mixed report (stepping up efforts, yet infiltration harder), there is no mention

of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. It's the Afghan-Pakistan border area that's cited.

Memo to White House - you took your eyes off the prize 5 years and 4,000 deaths ago.

[underpants]

5. Intelligence Report: Al Qaeda Renewing Efforts to Sneak Operatives Into U.S.

Source: Fox News

WASHINGTON — Al Qaeda is stepping up its efforts to sneak terror operatives into the United States and has acquired most of the capabilities it needs to strike here, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment, The Associated Press has learned.

The draft National Intelligence Estimate is expected to paint an increasingly worrisome portrait of Al Qaeda's ability to use its base along the Pakistan-Afghan border to launch and inspire attacks, even as Bush administration officials say the U.S. is safer nearly six years into the war on terror.

Among the key findings of the classified estimate, which is still in draft form and must be approved by all 16 U.S. spy agencies:



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289152,00.html

[Captain Hilts]

6. Well, it looks like we're accommodating the terrorists by letting ourselves be terrorized. nt

[MuseRider]

7. Good Lord.

I am so tired.

This has been one of the most tiring administrations I have ever lived through. Some of the rest were bad but this one has been boring (repeat phrases) and tiring (be very afraid we will take care of you). I am exhausted. Unafraid and exhausted.

[KansDem]

8. How does this report differ from the August 6, 2001 PDB of "Osama determined to strike inside US?"

Will Bush ignore this one too?

...still in draft form and must be approved by all 16 U.S. spy agencies
I thought Bush "overhauled" the intelligence community after 9/11 because it was overly cumbersome in collecting and analyzing intel. At least, I believe, that's what we were told. Are we suppose to believe that "only" 16 spy agencies is an improvement over what existed before? How many spy agencies were there before? Or is Bush's assessment that the American intel community needed overhaul simply a ruse to deflect responsibility from his gross negligence or 9/11 complicity?

[bemildred]

9. They say it like it would be hard to do.

Any "illegal" latino worker can tell you that it is not.

[Bitwit1234]

10. IF al-qaeda IS sneaking operatives into this country.

then how come the six years that bush and company had the republicans pass all those laws, supply all that money and shredd the constitution and the Bill of Rights it hasn't worked. What in the hell have they been doing with all that money????????????????? Think cheney took more than 10% of THAT budget?

[Warren Stupidity]

11. "Leaked U.S. threat assessments"

For the naive: this means that the administration is deliberately putting this information out in the public arena. It is part of their current bullshit campaign once again linking Iraq to Al Kader and his Big Band of Jihadi Thugs. Please do not get bamboozled.

[Exiled in America]

14. That's not necessarily true.

"Leaked" can mean anything. It could be a white house sanctioned leak. I could also be a leak from someone who was not supposed to divulge the information who did it anyway.

The Pentagon Papers, for example, were leaked - and they sure as hell weren't because that administration deliberately put them out in the public arena!

We can't know until we know the source of the leak.

There are plenty of reasons to doubt that the WH wanted this leak, and there are a few reasons to theorize that maybe they did. No one knows for sure.

[Warren Stupidity]

17. No. Your exception proves the rule.

"The Pentagon Papers, for example, were leaked" - yes that was an example of an actual leak and if you were around at the time you would remember that the government had a royal shit fit over an unauthorized leak. In fact the government attempted to prevent the publication of this information in an act of prior restraint.

This was an official leak for the benefit of this administration, otherwise this disclosure of classified information would have resulted in an arrest.

[dipsydoodle]

12. Maybe it should have said Al

Jolson:shrug:

[Bonhomme Richard]

13. Complete bullshit.

Pre 9/11, according to reports I read, it was a small movement (by todays standards). After 9/11 the blowback from international outrage caused the group to fracture even further. Quite a few of the members believed that the attack on the world trade centers was a propaganda disaster and drifted away from the movement. What saved the movement was our attack and occupation of Iraq.
So......if it were actually back to pre 9/11 levels the group would be smaller not larger, which of course we know it is.
Utter propaganda bullshit to make the people, who don't know the truth, accept the fear premise.

[Exiled in America]

15. Your reasoning is flawed.

You keep talking about the "size" of the group. That's not what the report is saying. The report is speaking to the capability of the group. AQ may have been a small movement, but that small movement had the capability to bring down the towers.

Now, our attack and occupation of Iraq has re-invigorated the group, and intelligence estimates indicate they have rebuilt that capability to strike inside the US - that finding is not at all surprising. In fact, you'd have to pretty much totally ignore common sense to think otherwise. Let's see...we alienate and anger even the most moderate of people in the middle east by invading and occupying their land, we continue to be an increasingly hegemonistic nation across the world --- imagine my shock that this my be the perfect climate in which AQ could find ways to increase its capability to the point where it would again be able to stretch out and strike targets inside the US.

That doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude.

[underpants]

16. Also - in the matter of their capability

They only had about 20-25 really in on the second WTC attack
---19 + Moussaui-who really wasn't in on it- and some planners (KSM and such) ---and that is about it. They only spent about $250,000 on the whole thing (IIRC) so capability is not a huge matter, unfortuneately.

I think the confusion here is that we (this NIE) are lumping all al-Qaeda together--the old main unit (OBL and such) with "related" parties with "alQaeda in Iraq" which is its own entity and may bleed members out but mostly is interested in operating in Iraq.

[Acadia Blue]

18. They did not protect the USA, spent is all in Iraq! An outrage and

it makes one think they want us to have another disaster.