Intel: Al Qaeda Ups Efforts To Strike U.S.

New Intelligence Reveals Terror Group Gaining Capabilities To Attack

(CBS/AP) 
At a news conference Thursday, President Bush acknowledged al Qaeda's continuing threat to the United States and used the new report as evidence his administration's policies are on the right course.

"The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on Sept. 11," he said. "That's why what happens in Iraq matters to security here at home."

Yet Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Iraq has distracted the United States. He said the U.S. should have finished off al Qaeda in 2002 and 2003 along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Instead, "President Bush chose to invade Iraq, thereby diverting our military and intelligence resources away from the real war on terrorism," Rockefeller said. "Threats to the United States homeland are not emanating from Iraq. They are coming from al Qaeda leadership."

He called for the U.S. to end its involvement in what he called the Iraqi civil war.

Former CIA officer Bruce Riedel blames the invasion of Iraq for diverting the U.S. military from the hunt for Bin Laden and giving al Qaeda its second wind.

"Al Qaeda in Iraq has grown from virtually nothing before the war to one of the most successful al Qaeda operations in the world today," Riedel tells Martin.

In recent weeks, senior national security officials have been increasingly worried about an al Qaeda attack in the United States.

Appearing on a half-dozen morning TV shows Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff laid out a list of factors contributing to his "gut feeling" that the nation faces a higher risk of attack this summer: al Qaeda's increased freedom to train in South Asia, a flurry of public statements from the network's leadership, a history of summertime attacks, a broader range of attacks in North Africa and Europe, and homegrown terrorism increasing in Europe.

"Europe could become a platform for an attack against this country," Chertoff told CNN, although he and others continue to say they know of no specific, credible information pointing to an attack here.

National security officials are frustrated by an agreement last year between Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and tribal leaders in western Pakistan, which gave tribes near the Afghan border greater autonomy and has led to increased al Qaeda activity in the region.

Nevertheless, Bush administration officials still view Musharraf as a partner.

Speaking to a congressional hearing, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said that Pakistan under Musharraf has captured more al Qaeda operatives than any other country and that several major Taliban leaders were captured or killed this year.

"There is a considerable al Qaeda presence at the border, but they are under pressure," Boucher told a House national security subcommittee.

Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., was skeptical, saying Osama bin-Laden and other terrorist leaders apparently feel safe there. "Is this a Motel 6 for terrorists?" he asked.