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Al-Qaeda pursuing WMD, says US

Al-Qaeda pursuing WMD, says US

By Jitendra Joshi in Washington

October 10, 2007 08:16am

Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network remains bent on getting nuclear and biological weapons to unleash apocalyptic destruction, a new White House report on national security has warned.

The report, which called for redoubled anti-terror coordination at all levels of government, said al-Qaeda remained "the most serious and dangerous manifestation'' of extremist threats against the United States.

"We also must never lose sight of al-Qaeda's persistent desire for weapons of mass destruction, as the group continues to try to acquire and use chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear material,'' it said.

The White House called anew on the Democratic-led Congress to expand the power of US intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists "while protecting the civil liberties of Americans".

And following the administration's failure to push immigration reform through Congress, the report called for improved capacity to find and expel illegal aliens, "including criminals and potential terrorists".

The appraisal followed a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) in July that warned that al-Qaeda is back in business, sparking Democratic complaints that the war in Iraq has proven a dangerous distraction.

The NIE, which prefigured much of today's report, said al-Qaeda had regrouped in Pakistan "and would not hesitate'' to use weapons of mass destruction on the United States.

During a testy media conference call, White House homeland security advisor Fran Townsend rebuffed suggestions that the Iraq war had served only to revive al-Qaeda in the years since the September 11 attacks of 2001.

"Every time I walk into the press briefing room we go through this, and what I will say to you is there should be no question that there were like-minded Islamic extremists inside Iraq and throughout the region,'' she said.

"And certainly that there is extremism inside Iraq and throughout the region is not a result of the war in Iraq, it is a fundamental front in the continuing war on terror.''

- A summary (html format) can be found at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/homeland/nshs/2007/index.html

-- The new report (.pdf) can be found at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/homeland/nshs/NSHS.pdf

--- Source of this report: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22561496-38198,00.html