http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/secure/2010/10_06/ba.as p?
Al Qaida recruiting Americans to elude heightened security measures FBI Director Robert Mueller said last week that Al Qaida is continuing to formulate plans to attack the United States and is seeking western-looking terrorists to conduct the strikes. "Despite the significant counterterrorism pressure abroad, Al Qaida continues to be committed to high-profile attacks directed at the West, including plans against Europe as well as the homeland," Mueller told the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Recent FBI investigations show that Al Qaida is shifting some of its strategy for these planned attacks. In the past, including after the 9/11 attacks, the group focused on employing Middle Easterners and South Asians for attacks. "Since 2006, Al Qaida has looked to recruit Americans or Westerners who are able to remain undetected by heightened security measures," Mueller said. "For example, last year for the first time since September 11, Al Qaida successfully trained and deployed an operative to the United States to carry out such an attack. That operative was Najibullah Azazi, a lawful U.S. permanent resident who was plotting to attack the New York subways." New Al Qaida affiliate threats exist as well, including terrorists in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Iraq. "Their threats focus more on homeland attacks now, as we saw with the Christmas Day and Times Square attempted bombings," Mueller said. Those groups also are seeking to recruit extremists in the West, he said. "Cooperation between Al Qaida and other terrorist groups has changed in the past year, suggesting that this threat may increase," Mueller said. "Sharing financial resources, training and recruits, these groups have been able to withstand significant counterterrorism pressure from the U.S., coalition and local government forces." Recent cases have also shown that homegrown extremists are more sophisticated, harder to detect and better able to connect with other extremists," he said, noting that "in certain cases, they are more operationally capable than what we have previously seen." Internet forums are being used for terrorist propaganda and recruiting and as a result there is a new threat from home-grown U.S. Islamists. U.S. nationals traveling abroad to conflict zones are receiving terrorist training. Intelligence sources say there have been reports of at least several hundred Muslim converts who have traveled abroad to Yemen and received Al Qaida training. The sources said the FBI is trying to track down the terrorists who are believed to be in the United States. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
