Posted on 09/15/2011 1:39:09 PM PDT by bayouranger
WASHINGTON, Sep. 13 (Xinhua) -- Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has emerged as "the most dangerous regional node in the global jihad," retired Gen. David Petraeus said Tuesday during his first Capitol Hill appearance as CIA Director.
Petraeus made the remarks when testifying along with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on how the intelligence world has changed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks a decade ago.
"The CIA assesses that, ten years after the 9/11 attacks, the United States continues to face a serious threat from al-Qaeda and its worldwide network of affiliates and sympathizers," he told lawmakers, adding "The extremist initiative is, to some degree, shifting to al-Qaeda's affiliates outside South Asia."
AQAP, a Yemen-based terrorist group, was blamed for the failed terror plot to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner in December, 2009. It was also behind the plots to launch attacks by mailing parcel bombs bound for the U.S. in October, 2010.
Petraeus, Clapper and lawmakers present at the hearing all agreed that the killing of Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders has dealt a blow to the terrorist group, but there is no room for complacency as the U.S. continues to face a serious threat from al-Qaeda and its affiliates.
"I have seen numerous suggestions lately that the threat from terrorism has significantly waned and that the terrorists could be near defeat. This is a dangerous assumption," Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said at the hearing.
He noted that al-Qaeda seemed to have changed tactics in launching attacks and become more interested in somewhat smaller- scale tactics, like truck bombs and bombs on airplanes, rather than dramatic, large-scale, mass casualty events like 9/11.
Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said while the U.S. intelligence community has improved a lot over the past decade, terrorist groups have also changed and adapted. They have learned ways to evade surveillance, and they have developed ways to attack that are difficult to defend against.
"Instead of fighting one enemy, al-Qaeda has dispersed and its affiliates have emerged in Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa," she said. "There is a metastasizing set of groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan intent on terror attacks and violence against United States forces."
It was good information until I got to Dianne Fineswine commentary.
At least she’s not saying all is peachy-keen so we no longer need to profile.
Petraeus working for Clapper is like Mozart working for Salieri. But thank God he agreed to take over at CIA.
Colonel, USAFR
But our doors of immigration from this region of the world remain wide open.
Just waiting for some national disaster to happen.
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