Pakistan is home to the top Al Qaeda leadership and the next terror attack on America could come from the militant outfit based there and not Iraq.
Sridhar Krishnaswami
WASHINGTON, DC: Pakistan is home to the top Al Qaeda leadership and the next terror attack on America could come from the militant outfit based there and not Iraq, as popularly believed, a top US intelligence official has said.
Al Qaeda leadership is trying to rebuild and establish training camps in Pakistan, the new Director of National Intelligence in US, Admiral Mike McConnell said at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill.
He was asked by Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island that if a new attack was being organised against the United States it would come from Iraq or Pakistan.
McConnell replied, "two lines of reasoning to answer that. First of all, Iraq is a cause celebre for the jihadists, in creating forces. My belief is the attack most likely would be planned and come out of the leadership in Pakistan."
"However, that said, there are Al Qaeda elements, as you know, in Iraq and in Syria and other places, and even in Europe. And our information tells us they also are planning," McConnel replied.
Pakistan could do more in coming to terms with the Al Qaeda and the Taliban and the President of Pakistan is "wrestling" with this issue in the context of the next elections coming up in the country, he said.
"The camps that have been established in Pakistan are in an area that has never been governed by any power. And so the best of our knowledge that the senior leadership (of Al Qaeda), number one and number two, are there, and they are attempting to reestablish and rebuild and to establish training camps," McConnell said.
Al Qaeda is trying to "rebuild" in the Northwest frontier of Pakistan, he added.
On the state of Al Qaeda, McConnel said, first of all, just let me say that Al Qaeda leadership as it existed prior to 9/11 or prior to going into Afghanistan, somewhere in the neighbourhood of three-quarters of the leadership have been killed or captured.
"Now, does that mean that those members have not been replaced? Yes, they have been replaced. The downside, from the terrorists' point of view, is they've been replaced, but they don't have the experience. That said, they are no less committed to the kind of heinous acts that were carried out on 9/11," he said.
"When I looked at prior to going into Afghanistan, there were literally thousands of those forces in training with multiple camps. That's gone. They are attempting to rebuild in the northwest frontier of Pakistan. The numbers are not the same, but there are volunteers who are attempting to reestablish," he said.
"These are very committed individuals. And they are very smart and adaptive. And I think what we're seeing is we inflicted a major blow. They retreated to another area. And they are going through a process to re-establish and rebuild, adapting to the seams, or the weak spots, as they might perceive them," the top Intelligence official noted.
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