Sunday, April 29, 2007
Tenet: Al-Qaida's Nuclear Threat Real
NewsMax - The intelligence community has real concerns that al-Qaida will acquire nuclear weapons to use in a terrorist attack on the U.S., former CIA Director George Tenet confirms.
Tenet – author of the controversial new book "At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA” – also believes it’s likely that al-Qaida already has operatives in the U.S., he disclosed in an interview with CBS’ "60 Minutes” Sunday night and in other tv interviews Monday.
Tenet told CBS interviewer Scott Pelley that in 2003, terrorists in the U.S. were prepared to launch an attack in the New York City subways when the operation was called off by Osama bin Laden’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in favor of "something larger.”
A clue to what that "something” could have been is that bin Laden has been trying to acquire nuclear material since 1993, according to Tenet.
"Are these people gonna have a nuclear capability? This confers superpower status on a networked organization that is not a state,” Tenet told Pelley.
"Is it gonna happen? Look, I don’t know. But I worry about it. Because I’ve seen enough to tell me that there’s intent. And when there’s intent, the question is, when does the capability show up? If al-Qaida were to acquire nuclear capability, the thousands of weapons we have would be irrelevant.”
Asked if al-Qaida is in the U.S. right now, Tenet said: "My operational presumption is that they infiltrated a second wave or a third wave into the United States at the time of 9/11. Now can I prove it to you? No. It’s my operational intuition.”
Tenet’s worries about al-Qaida’s nuclear desires seem to corroborate a new book by former FBI consultant Paul Williams due out later this month.
NewsMax - The intelligence community has real concerns that al-Qaida will acquire nuclear weapons to use in a terrorist attack on the U.S., former CIA Director George Tenet confirms.
Tenet – author of the controversial new book "At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA” – also believes it’s likely that al-Qaida already has operatives in the U.S., he disclosed in an interview with CBS’ "60 Minutes” Sunday night and in other tv interviews Monday.
Tenet told CBS interviewer Scott Pelley that in 2003, terrorists in the U.S. were prepared to launch an attack in the New York City subways when the operation was called off by Osama bin Laden’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in favor of "something larger.”
A clue to what that "something” could have been is that bin Laden has been trying to acquire nuclear material since 1993, according to Tenet.
"Are these people gonna have a nuclear capability? This confers superpower status on a networked organization that is not a state,” Tenet told Pelley.
"Is it gonna happen? Look, I don’t know. But I worry about it. Because I’ve seen enough to tell me that there’s intent. And when there’s intent, the question is, when does the capability show up? If al-Qaida were to acquire nuclear capability, the thousands of weapons we have would be irrelevant.”
Asked if al-Qaida is in the U.S. right now, Tenet said: "My operational presumption is that they infiltrated a second wave or a third wave into the United States at the time of 9/11. Now can I prove it to you? No. It’s my operational intuition.”
Tenet’s worries about al-Qaida’s nuclear desires seem to corroborate a new book by former FBI consultant Paul Williams due out later this month.
