(L-R) Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey, arrive at a hearing before Senate (Select) Intelligence Committee January in Washington.
Syrian
al-Qaeda-linked groups want to attack the United States and are training
a growing cadre of fighters from Europe, the Mideast and even the
United States, United States intelligence chief James Clapper warned on
Wednesday.
Director
of National Intelligence Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee
that groups such as the al-Nusra Front in Syria have inaugurated
training camps “to train people to go back to their countries,” the
Associated Press quoted him as saying.
He described this as “one of the newest threats emerging in the past year to U.S. security.”
He added: “Al-Nusra Front, to name one .... does have aspirations for attacks on the homeland.”
However, Clapper did not elaborate or offer any evidence of al-Nusra’s desire to attack the U.S.
He said
the civil war in Syria has become a “huge magnet” for these groups while
sub-Saharan Africa has become a “hothouse” for extremists even as
al-Qaeda’s core leadership has been steadily weakened in Pakistan.
America’s
intelligence agencies estimated that there were about 26,000 fighters
deemed to be “extremists” operating in Syria out of a total opposition
force of 75,000 to 110,000 from some 50 countries, Clapper said
He said
more established groups, like Yemen’s al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,
are still more capable of carrying out attacks against the U.S., but
described steep growth in numbers of fighters in Syria.
Biological weapons
He also offered a warning on advances in Syria’s biological weapons program.
Although
Syria has agreed to eliminate its large arsenal of chemical weapons, the
regime may now have the ability to produce biological weapons on a
limited scale, he said.
“We judge
that some elements of Syria’s biological warfare program might have
advanced beyond the research and development stage and might be capable
of limited agent production, based on the duration of its longstanding
program,” the Associated Press quoted Clapper as saying in written
testimony.
Clapper
offered no further details, but it was the first time an official has
publicly stated that spy agencies believed Syria had made strides in its
biological program.
Neither
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime nor the rebel groups appear able to
achieve a decisive victory on the battlefield in the next six months,
said Clapper, adding that the war would further foment Sunni-Shiite
sectarian tensions across the region.
Extremists gaining access to technologies
Meanwhile,
another U.S. official warned of extremist rebels getting access to
technologies that could be used against Washington.
“Not only
are fighters being drawn to Syria, but so are technologies and
techniques that pose particular problems to our defenses,” the
Associated Press quoted committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein as saying.
She
warned Syria could become “a launching point or way station for
terrorists seeking to attack the United States or other nations,” in the
annual hearing Wednesday to hear the U.S. intelligence committee’s
assessment of worldwide threats.
U.S.
intelligence analysts have told the Associated Press that al-Qaeda
leader Ayman al-Zawahri and his lieutenants are too preoccupied by the
constant threat of U.S. drone strikes to plot a major attack against the
U.S. similar to Sept. 11.
This has
pushed Zawahri to empower various “nodes” of his organization to choose
their own, often local targets, though he encourages them to focus on
the “far enemy” of the U.S. when they can.
U.S.
intelligence officials told the Associated Press that Zawahri so far has
not called on the Syrian branches to attack U.S. targets, allowing them
to focus on the war against Assad.
Meanwhile,
Clapper compared Syria to the semi-autonomous tribal belt in northwest
Pakistan, which has served as a sanctuary for the Taliban and members of
al-Qaeda.
(With Associated Press and AFP)
Source: english.alarabiya.net
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