Article by Visiting Fellow Joshua Sinai Reviewed in Security Debrief
The Al Qaeda Threat – Diminished Capacity or Deliberate Concealment
by David Olive
March 14th, 2013
The Al Qaeda Threat – Diminished Capacity or Deliberate Concealment
by David Olive
March 14th, 2013
National security scholar Dr. Joshua Sinai has just published a new analysis on the evolving threat to US interests by Al Qaeda and their associated adherents. The underlying premise of Dr. Sinai’s article is that the serious threat to U.S. interests from Al Qaeda has not diminished, but it has changed, adapted and is deliberately concealing its nefarious plans to attack the United States – a sentiment that overlaps, albeit somewhat slightly, the testimony provided Tuesday by ODNI director General James Clapper.
As reported by CQ Homeland Security this week (subscription required), General Clapper came to a slightly different conclusion, that al-Qaida’s ability to carry out terrorist attacks on the United States is sorely degraded.
“Senior personnel losses in 2012, amplifying losses and setbacks since 2008, have degraded core al Qaeda to a point that the group is probably unable to carry out complex, large-scale attacks in the West,” he stated in prepared testimony.