This Just In !!!

Al-Qaida plots new attacks on U.S. soil

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 3 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Al-Qaida is using its growing strength in Pakistan and Iraq to plot attacks on U.S. soil, heightening the terror threat facing the United States over the next few years, intelligence agencies concluded in a report unveiled Tuesday.

[Kier: This is one of those stories that Washington throws out there every now and then to see if we're still awake and too keep the gullible in fear.
The fact of the matter, and everyone knows it, is that Al-Quaida has always been planning attacks against the US. They always will until the US gets itself out of the middle-east which is never.]

In the National Intelligence Estimate prepared for President Bush and other top policymakers, analysts laid out a range of dangers — from al-Qaida to Lebanese Hezbollah to non-Muslim radical groups — that pose a "persistent and evolving threat" to the country over the next three years.

[Kier: Blah, blah, blah. Nothing new here. No evidence, just general anxiety building BS.]

The findings focused most heavily on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, which was judged to remain the most serious threat to the United States. The group's affiliate in Iraq, which has not yet posed a direct threat to U.S. soil, could do just that, the report concluded. Al-Qaida in Iraq threatened to attack the United States in a Web statement last September.

[Kier: Good job Bush. You took a place where there were no terrorists and it's now a real-world, hands-on training ground. To me that sounds like he has not only made the world a more dangerous place but he also made the US a more dangerous place.]

The findings focused most heavily on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, which was judged to remain the most serious threat to the United States. The group's affiliate in Iraq, which has not yet posed a direct threat to U.S. soil, could do just that, the report concluded. Al-Qaida in Iraq threatened to attack the United States in a Web statement last September.

[Kier: Sounds like we're setting up Pakistan. It wouldn't surprise me after we unilaterally recognized India as a nuclear power and have been supplying them with technology. We always support you until you piss us off, just ask Saddam.]

Analysts — who concluded the U.S. now faces a "heightened threat environment" — painted an increasingly familiar picture of al-Qaida: A group focused on high-profile attacks against political, economic and infrastructure targets, while striving to cause mass casualties and dramatic destruction.

[Kier: The recent attack attempts in Britain were against none of the above. This analysis tends to give the would-be terrorists far more credit than they deserve. With few exceptions groups that were detected being involved in some kind of terror plot were incompetent idiots. The people caught outside the US involved in terror activities were apprehended by good police-work and a bit of luck.]

FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said the bureau does not know of any al-Qaida cells in the United States, although his agents continue investigating such questions. The estimate said international counterterrorism efforts since 2001 have hampered al-Qaida's ability to attack the United States again, while also convincing terror groups that U.S. soil is a tougher target.

[Kier: The FBI director doesn't know of any cells in the US??? So what's with the scare tactics?]

Charles Allen, the Department of Homeland Security's top intelligence official, said the department isn't changing the nation's threat level, which remains at yellow, or "elevated" — the middle of a five-point scale. Airlines remain one step higher, at orange.

[Kier: No threat change either. Sounds like the equivelent of Chertoff's recent "gut feeling".]

The Bush administration also brushed off critics who say the administration released the intelligence estimate now to help its case as the Senate debates whether to withdraw troops from Iraq. White House press secretary Tony Snow said critics are "engaged in a little selective hearing ... to shape the story in their own political ways."

[Kier: Bush has a well-earned reputation for doing this. Of course he would say that is not the case, but we all know it's true. The intelligence community has tarnished it's reputation as being solely about finding the truth to being just another political tool to be wielded to support whatever policy that the President comes up with.]

Bottom line: I just don't believe anything from this administration anymore.