Front Page > World > Article Title/Fixture Title

Front Page > Nation/Politics

Email | Print | Subscribe

Click-2-Listen

advertisement

Al Qaeda seen in search of nukes

By Bill Gertz
July 26, 2007

Michael Leiter (left), deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center, and retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, testified yesterday before a joint hearing in the House on the National Intelligence Estimate and al Qaeda.

---

Al Qaeda terrorists are continuing to plan attacks against the United States and are seeking nuclear and other unconventional arms for the strikes, a senior Pentagon official told Congress yesterday.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, told a joint House committee hearing that al Qaeda has conducted terrorist attacks against more than two dozen nations since September 11.

"Al Qaeda has and will continue to attempt visually dramatic mass-casualty attacks here at home, and they will continue to attempt to acquire chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials," Gen. Clapper said in discussing the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on threats to the United States. "And if they're so successful in obtaining these materials, we believe they would use them."

He spoke before a joint hearing of the House Armed Services Committee and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Gen. Clapper said that al Qaeda has "reconstituted some of its command and support network" in tribal Pakistan along the Afghan border but that the estimates finding are "not a surprise."

"We are at war with an enemy not confined to national boundaries or a single ethnic group," he said. "Our fight against extremists in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world has kept our nation safe from attacks here at home."

Gen. Clapper warned that al Qaeda is trying to develop or acquire from rogue states nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and said "we can be certain that they will use such weapons against the United States at their first opportunity, especially, if they can, on American soil to kill our citizens, destroy our property, disrupt our economy and attempt to break our national will to resist their extremist objectives."

The testimony followed comments by President Bush on Tuesday that al Qaeda is "fighting us in Iraq and across the world and plotting to kill Americans here at home again."

Click-2-Listen

Front Page > Nation/Politics