Hayden: Al Qaida down in Muslim polls, but still 'clear and present danger'
Friday, November 21, 2008 Free Headline Alerts
Excerpted from a Geostrategy-Direct.com report
CIA Director Michael V. Hayden disclosed new information last week on the state of Al Qaida terrorisms and stressed that it remains a key object of the agency to capture or kill its leader, Osama Bin Laden.
Hayden said in a speech to the Atlantic Council that Al Qaida in 2008 has suffered setbacks but remain an adaptive foe “unlike any our nation has ever faced.”
Hayden said “significant progress” has been made in waging ideological combat against Al Qaida over the past year as some hard line Islamic leaders have begun speaking out against Al Qaida tactics and its ideology.
Polls show declining support for Al Qaida and Bin Laden in many Muslim nations.
“In fact, more and more Muslims are pushing back against the senseless violence and flawed worldview of Al Qaida,” he said. “Credible, influential voices are refuting its twisted justification for murdering innocents. These voices are tapping into doubts about Al Qaida that have always been there.” p> To counter its setbacks, Al Qaida is seeking to expand into North Africa, Somalia and Yemen, he said.
“This war — and no one should mistake it as anything else — is far from over,” Hayden said, apparently anticipating a shift from a counterterrorism war footing at present to the law-enforcement approach to counterterrorism expected in the coming Obama administration.
Hayden also said Al Qaida remains both resilient and vulnerable and that its operations areas in Pakistan’s tribal areas pose “the most clear and present danger to the United States today.” “If there is a major strike on this country, it will bear the fingerprints of Al Qaida,” Hayden said.