4est_4est_Gump
Run Forrest! RUN!
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2011
- Posts
- 89,007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-qaeda-us-20120726,0,6632983.storyWASHINGTON — The militant organization that was once the scourge of the U.S. militarycampaign in Iraq and probably is responsible for more than 100 deaths in the country over the last few days has set its sights on launching attacks in the United States, intelligence officials said.
Al Qaeda in Iraq released a message this week that threatened to strike at the "heart" of the United States, and several associates of the group have been arrested in the U.S. and Canada in the last two years, said American officials, a sign that the organization has tried to establish a network in North America.
The arrests highlight "the potential threat posed to the United States" from Al Qaeda in Iraq, said Matthew Olsen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, during a hearing Wednesday before the House Homeland Security Committee examining the current threat from terrorism to the United States.
Al Qaeda in Iraq had been known primarily for launching attacks against the American forces in Iraq and the Shiite Muslim-led government there, as well as helping to plot attacks in neighboring Jordan.
But "there are networks and recruiting efforts in the U.S. and Canada," said Seth Jones, an expert on Al Qaeda at the Rand Corp. and author of "Hunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of Al Qaeda since9/11."
"You can say pretty categorically that Al Qaeda in Iraq appears to be strengthening from where it was two years ago," even as Al Qaeda's senior leaders in Pakistan have been killed, Jones said.
Got all our troops out! What a proud moment!
(Maybe Syria will give them their WMDs back...)