Intel chair: Qaeda dead set on U.S. attacks

By: Alex Sundby
Topics: In The News ,; Al Qaeda

(Credit: CBS/AP)

Last month's killing of Osama bin Laden hasn't cut down on al Qaeda's drive to carry out terror attacks within the United States, according to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

The chairman, Republican Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, issued such a warning in an article posted to ABC News' website Thursday about the terror network's Yemeni chapter, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

"Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is strictly, or has been strictly focused on attacks in the U.S. homeland," Rogers told ABC. "This morning, when you're over your breakfast cereal there is somebody in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula planning another attack in the U.S."

In the files that U.S. Navy SEALs recovered from bin Laden's Pakistani compound May 2, the intelligence community found further information that bin Laden urged his supporters to carry out attacks within U.S. borders, ABC reported.

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Last week, The Associated Press reported that bin Laden supported the Yemeni group's focus on smaller operations. According to bin Laden's private journal, he had urged Qaeda operatives to broaden its focus of U.S. targets to include smaller cities and other means of mass transportation such as trains instead of commercial airliners, the AP reported.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been linked to three specific incidents in the past two years: the Fort Hood shooting massacre allegedly carried out by Army psychologist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the attempted bombing of a commercial airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day and the foiled plot to detonate bombs hidden inside computer printers on planes over the United States.

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Alex Sundby
Alex Sundby is an associate news editor for CBSNews.com

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by dustin93sc June 16, 2011 4:59 PM EDT: Barack is out of office after next year's election. Al Qada will have a new president in the Oval Office for their terror activity.; Reply to this comment


by jschmidt27 June 16, 2011 1:07 PM EDT: Guess it is more reason for TSA to be checking out those grandma's and kids in diapers while letting other suspicious people (yes a valued judgement) through security.; Reply to this comment

by actornaught June 16, 2011 12:09 PM EDT

And after publicizing it, one attack is successful.

Everybody that's not of obvious European descent in red states, make sure your papers are in order.

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by actornaught June 16, 2011 12:42 PM EDT: It's okay, empie, you can just say you agree with me.

But as to your Blue States crapola, you should consider what "overreacting" has done for your attitude.

Otherwise, I recommend you move, if you're so dedicated to being scared.

by nottblu June 16, 2011 12:00 PM EDT

When Bush was president an article like this would have generated hundreds of posts from the left stating the war on terror was fake, 911 was an inside job, radicals were motivated by US policy, this is republican fear mongering to support the Haliburton war machine, on and on, now that Obama is president all that critisism is gone! Very telling, for the left, hatred for republicans is very strong motivator in fact it apparently produced delusions and denial of reality in regards to the "war on terror".

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by actornaught June 16, 2011 12:06 PM EDT: "...hatred for republicans..."

After seeing your layers of Straw Man delusions, this Nugget of Hypocrisy stands out.


by addict42 June 16, 2011 11:58 AM EDT: Thank heavens these guys are mostly incompetents but even the dumbest terrorist may get lucky one day. So everyone should be vigilant and squawk like a parrot if anything looks out of the ordinary.; Reply to this comment


by you_MAY_be_right June 16, 2011 11:11 AM EDT: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.; Reply to this comment