Feed: Congress grills homeland security, intelligence officials - AggScore: 13.0

Congress grills homeland security, intelligence officials

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caption id alignalignleft width210 captionAmericans turning to radical Islam are a danger to the United States and to the Free World. Photo Police Times img srchttpcdn2b.examiner.comsitesdefaultfilesstyleslargehash74127412ddf5ee3ffac0058023f04ac0b9aa.jpg alt width210 height150 captionIn an effort to gain insight on the strength and volatility of the Islamic terrorist group alQaeda, the U.S.House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee grilled members of President Barack Obamas socalled national security team on Wednesday.The numerous attacks against al Qaeda and its affiliated terrorist organizations including the killing or capturing of top commanders for more than a decade may havetaken their tollon the terrorists, but the organizationcontinues to be a seriousthreat to the United States, a top administration official told the panel oflawmakers yesterday.In addition to the core alQaeda group, which still represents a threat to the United States, despite its diminished capabilities, we now face threats from a number of alQaeda associates that share its violent extremist ideology, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.While not mentioning the names of these groups, intelligence and law enforcement officials are familiar withorganizations such as Al Shabaab and Abu Sayyaf, who are aligned with alQaeda.The hearing titled,Homeland Threat Landscape was convened by Rep. Peter King RNY, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.Napolitano told the congressmen that the groups are hard at workattemptingtorecruit scoresofAmericans for their terrorist activities in the U.S. or overseas.We are seeing an increased emphasis on recruiting Americans and Westerners to carry out attacks. These groups are trying to recruit people to carry out attacks. They have connections to the West, but who do not have strong ties to terrorist groups that could possibly tip off the intelligence community, said Napolitano, who has been underfire by GOP lawmakers for her mistakes and misstatements.They are also encouraging individuals in the West to carry out their own smallscale attacks, which require less of the coordination and planning that could raise red flags and lead to an attack disruption. This means that the threat has evolved in such a way that we have to add to our traditional counterterrorism strategies, which, in the past, have looked at the attack as coming from abroad, Napolitano stated.Michael E. Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told the lawmakersthat there remains certain ideological inspiration from alQaedas senior leadership but less and less operational control. I think thats in large part due to the offensive pressure that were applying to alQaeda in Pakistan, Leiter said.I actually consider alQaeda in the Arabian Peninsula with alAwlaki as a leader within that organization probably the most significant risk to the U.S. homeland, he said in response to questioningby Rep.King.The congressmannoted that withinglastcouple ofyears there have been more than125 suspectsindicted for terroristrelated activity, including 50 U.S. citizens. Thesesuspects include Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, Fort Hood terrorist Army Maj Nidal Hasan, the Little Rock recruiting center shooter, the New York City subway bomber and Mumbai plotter David Headley, besides many other cases around the country.Just yesterday, Daniel Patrick Boyd of North Carolina pled guilty to terrorism charges and is expected to be sentenced to life imprisonmentNoting that homegrown terrorists or lone wolvesare growing threats, King saidthey cannot be ignored. This shift, as far as Im concerned, is a game changer that presents a serious challenge to law enforcement and the intelligence community, he said during the congressional hearings.