The Al-Qaeda network is now vulnerable, yet remains dangerous and a threat to US national security, CIA director Porter Goss said Wednesday.
"In the past year, aggressive measures by our intelligence, law enforcement, defense and homeland security community along with our key international partners have in fact dealt serious blows to Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations and individuals," Goss told a Senate intelligence committee hearing.
"Despite these successes, however the terrorist threat to the US in the homeland and abroad endures," he acknowledged.
"We know from experience that Al-Qaeda is a patient, persistent, imaginative, adapted, dangerous opponent -- but it is vulnerable and displaced," Goss added.
"Our pursuit of Al-Qaeda and its most senior leaders, including (Osama) bin Laden and his deputy (Ayman) Zawahiri is intense," Goss said.
"However, that capture ... will not be enough to eliminate the terrorist threat to the US homeland and interests overseas."
Al-Qaeda is, he said, "intent on finding ways to circumvent US security enhancements to strike Americans in the homeland."
Goss added that "Al-Qaeda is only one facet of the threat from a broader Sunni jihadist movement," warning: "It may be only a matter of time before Al-Qaeda or other group attempt to use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons. We must focus on that." |
