Al-Qaeda planning fresh attacks on US: CIA chief
56 minutes ago
NEW YORK (AFP) â CIA director Michael Hayden warned Friday that Al-Qaeda was plotting fresh attacks on the United States aimed at sowing death and destruction on a massive scale.
His comments came just days ahead of the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and as the US government said it was analyzing a copy of the latest video message said to have been made by elusive Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
"Our analysts assess with high confidence that Al-Qaeda's central leadership is planning high impact plots against the American homeland," Hayden told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
"Al-Qaeda is focusing on targets that would produce mass casualties, dramatic destruction and significant economic aftershocks," he added.
The Bin Laden video, first reported Thursday by US officials monitoring militant websites, would be the first such appearance by the militant leader since October 2004, when he threatened new attacks on the United States.
"I want to be as clear as I can about the threat we face," Hayden said, saying the Central Intelligence Agency would use "every inch we're given" by the US government to wage the "war on terror" and hunt down militants.
"We bear responsibility for standing watch on this threat," he said. "Our nation is in a state of armed conflict with Al-Qaeda and its affiliates. It's a conflict that is global in scope," he added.
"It's very hard to see this thing as anything less than war" criticizing the media for references such as a "so-called war on terror."
The danger the United States faced, he said, was "more real than anything our citizens at home have confronted since our Civil War."
"This is a form of warfare unlike any other in our country's history. It's an intelligence war as much as a military one, actually maybe it's an intelligence war more than it's a military one."
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