Al-Qaeda: Weakened, Continues to Target U.S.: Officials

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Al-Qaeda still hopes to carry out attacks against the United States, even as the structure of the terrorist network has become more dispersed, the White House pick to oversee unified U.S. counterterrorism operations said at his Tuesday confirmation hearing (see GSN, July 18).

"That threat is not so much from the senior (al-Qaeda) leadership in Pakistan with one unified goal, it is now diffused in various regional locations under various leaders and with various goals," said Matthew Olsen, who is awaiting Senate approval to become the new director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Olsen said the May shooting death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. Navy SEALs was a "significant milestone" that that there has been "substantial progress" in the fight against the terror group.

Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch "has shown a willingness and a level of capability to strike in the United States," Olsen told members of the Senate intelligence committee. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been linked in recent years to failed efforts to detonate a bomb on a passenger aircraft heading to Detroit and to mail explosives to the United States.   

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