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Defend America on Wednesday, February 03, 2010 5:59:06 AM
Senators Warned of Terrorist Attack on U.S. by July
Published: February 2, 2010
WASHINGTON — America’s top intelligence official told lawmakers on Tuesday that he was “highly certain” that Al Qaeda or one of its affiliates would attempt a large-scale attack on American soil within the next six months.
The assessment by Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, was much starker than his view last year,
when he emphasized the considerable progress in the campaign to
debilitate Al Qaeda and said that the global economic meltdown, rather
than the prospect of a major terrorist attack, was the “primary
near-term security concern of the United States.”
Citing a recent wave of terrorist plots, including the failed Dec. 25 attempt
to blow up an airliner as it approached Detroit, Mr. Blair and other
intelligence officials told a Senate panel that Al Qaeda had adjusted
its tactics to more effectively strike American targets domestically
and abroad.
“The biggest threat is not so much that we face an attack like 9/11,” said Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director. “It is that Al Qaeda is adapting its methods in ways that oftentimes make it difficult to detect.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/us/politics/03intel.html