US Report Says Al-qaida Regaining Strength

Al-Qaida has rebuilt its strength around the world over the last six years and is well placed to launch fresh attacks, according to a classified US national intelligence report.

The new threat assessment formed the basis for a discussion on al-Qaida at the White House today.

The five-page summary, titled Al-Qaida better positioned to strike the West, says the movement's leadership has regrouped in its safe haven along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area and restored its operating capabilities.

A counter-intelligence official told the Associated Press: "They are showing greater and greater ability to plan attacks in Europe and the United States."

That assessment is damaging for both the US and British foreign and intelligence communities. Only a few years ago, intelligence agencies were expressing satisfaction that the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had robbed al-Qaida of its safe haven and seriously disrupted it.

The counter-terrorism official said the group also has created "the most robust training program since 2001, with an interest in using European operatives."

The US media reported that the assessment, which is classified, said al-Qaida was as strong as it had been before the 9/11 attacks, a particularly emotive idea in the US. But president George Bush, speaking at a press conference, stressed the report said al-Qaida had grown in strength since the period after 9/11, not before.

He insisted al-Qaida has been weakened. "Because of the actions we've taken, al-Qaida is weaker today than they would have been," he said.

"They are still a threat. They are still dangerous. And that is why it is important that we succeed in Afghanistan and Iraq and anywhere else we find them."

Democrats latched onto the report, berating the president for failing to have caught Osama bin Laden and those round him, or tackled him in his Pakistan base. Harry Reid, the Democratic senate leader, accused Mr Bush of having taken his eye off the ball.

Michael Chertoff, head of homeland security, earlier this week caused a minor tremor of anxiety when he said he had "a gut feeling" there could be an attack on the US this summer. He today downgraded this, warning the public to be alert in the coming year.

Mr Chertoff said the report mentioned no specific, credible threat, but said officials believe "we're entering a period of increased risk". Asked on ABC's "Good Morning America" to explain al-Qaida's continuing strength nearly six years after 9/11, Mr Chertoff said, "It reflects the fact that just as we improve our defenses, the enemy tries to improve its defenses and rebuild itself."

John Kringen, who heads the CIA's analysis directorate, echoed the concerns about al-Qaida's resurgence during testimony and conversations with reporters at a House Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday.

"They seem to be fairly well settled into the safe haven and the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan," Mr Kringen testified. "We see more training. We see more money. We see more communications. We see that activity rising."

The new threat assessment feeds into discussions between the 16 US intelligence agencies who have spent two years preparing a National Intelligence Estimate focusing on threats to the United States.