Congress warns Al Qaida network expanding, threat level increasing

Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Congress has warned of an expanded Al Qaida network.

Leaders of the House and Senate have asserted that Al Qaida was
expanding throughout the Middle East and Europe. They said Al Qaida was
planning smaller but sustained strikes on Americans.

Rep. Mike Rogers and Sen. Dianne Feinstein.  /CNN
Rep. Mike Rogers and Sen. Dianne Feinstein. /CNN

“There is huge malevolence out there,” Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein said.

Ms. Feinstein, who receives regular briefings from the intelligence community, said Al Qaida presented a greater threat to American over the last two years. She said Al Qaida was spawning cells that were producing advanced bombs.

“There are new bombs, very big bombs, there are bombs that go through
magnetometers,” Ms. Feinstein said.

Rep. Mike Rogers agreed. Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence
Committee, said the Al Qaida threat on the United States was steadily increasing.

“Al Qaida as we know it before is metastasizing into something different, more affiliates than we ever had before,” Rogers told the U.S. network CNN on Dec. 1. “All of them have some aspirations to commit an act of violence against the United States.”

The House chairman said the U.S. intelligence community was under
tremendous pressure to stop Al Qaida. He said Al Qaida appeared to be
abandoning major attacks for smaller operations.

Congress said Al Qaida has also been recruiting Americans to fight in
the Sunni revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad. House and Senate
members have raised the prospect that the Americans could return with skills
to target critical facilities in the United States.

“We know that American citizens as well as Canadian and European
nationals have taken up arms in Syria, in Yemen and in Somalia,” Sen. Thomas
Carper said during a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee in
November 2013. “The threat that these individuals could return home to carry
out attacks is real and troubling.”

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