The report was released as the Senate launched a series of hearings
on the threat by the new Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Saudi
Arabia and Yemen. The Senate panel asserted that Americans in Yemen have
been recruited by Al Qaida over the last year to conduct mass-casualty
strikes in the United States.
A key concern was a group of about 10 American converts with features
that include blond hair and blue eyes. Officials said Al Qaida has sought to
recruit such Americans to penetrate U.S. airports and other security.
"There is a group of nearly 10 non-Yemeni Americans who traveled to
Yemen, converted to Islam, became fundamentalists, and married Yemeni women
so they could remain in the country," the report said.
The White House has acknowledged the failure of the U.S. intelligence
community to track and alert authorities of a Nigerian national who failed
to blow up an American airliner in December 2010. Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab
was allowed to board a U.S. airliner on a flight from Europe to the United
States despite being identified as an Al Qaida supporter.
"We are reviewing all the individuals, and I think the president is
reviewing my performance as well," National Counter-Terrorism Center Michael
Leiter said. "That is absolutely appropriate."
The report, however, warned that any U.S. intelligence effort required
cooperation by Yemen. But officials said Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh
has sought to coopt rather than confront Al Qaida.
"We have consistently appealed to Sanaa to see Al Qaida as a threat that
cannot be wished away," an official said.
Officials said the administration of President Barack Obama has warned
Saleh that U.S. aid to Yemen would depend on his regime's cooperation. Over
the last four months, senior U.S. military and intelligence officials have
stressed this message.
"Intelligence is what saves lives," Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama
Republican, said in a hearing on Jan. 20.
