D.Duck wrote:
"HK" wrote in message
...
John H. wrote:

I think you and Harry are right, Loogy. TSA, Bush, the CIA, FBI, and any
other security agencies have had no effect.

Nothing the Bush misAdministration has done and nothing the agencies it
controls have done will prevent an al Qaeda attack on this country.

It is virtually impossible for *any* administration to prevent *all*
attacks.




The only reason al Qaeda hasn't mounted a large-scale attack is because
it doesn't want to.

Al-Qaeda grooming militants who 'look western': CIA chief

8 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The head of the main US spy agency has warned that
Al-Qaeda is training operatives who "look western" and could enter the
United States undetected to conduct terrorist attacks.

Central Intelligence Agency Director General Michael 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 (airport near
Washington DC) with you," Hayden told NBC television Sunday.

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-Qaeda 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-Qaeda'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-Qaeda and the Taliban
were having more and more free reign there."

*In an annual threat assessment released in February, US intelligence
reported it had detected an influx of new western recruits to Al-Qaeda
safe havens in Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas since 2006.

"Al-Qaeda is improving the last key aspect of its ability to attack the
US -- the identification, training, and positioning of operatives for an
attack in the homeland," the report said.*

In presenting the report to Congress, US 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-Qaeda 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 CIA is making "every effort to
kill or capture" him along with his Al-Qaeda 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-Qaeda -- 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-Qaeda's number two is Ayman Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian militant who the
US director of national intelligence Michael McConnell last September
called "the real intellectual leader of Al-Qaeda."

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.