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US sees threat from al-Qaedaâs second generation
A U.S. anti-terrorism envoy said on Thursday that while two-thirds of known al Qaeda leaders had been captured or killed, a new generation of militants was the next area of concern.
| Yes. It's the junior varsity... |
Ambassador J. Cofer Black, U.S. State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, said the al Qaeda that masterminded the September 11 attacks had been severely weakened by the U.S.-led war on terrorism. "The al Qaeda of the 9/11 period is under catastrophic stress. They are being hunted down," he told the BBC. Repeating comments made by U.S. President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address this week, Black said two-thirds of the al Qaeda leadership had been "arrested, detained or otherwise put out of business".
| That means they were zapped. |
But he warned that young cannon fodder militants were still being drawn to the network headed by Osama bin Laden. "The next group of concern would be â I would say â a generation younger," he said, adding that the new generation tended "to be long on radicalism compared with short on training". Security analysts say the U.S.-declared war on terror has damaged al Qaeda, but some say it is too soon to proclaim that Washington is winning the struggle.
| Why not? It hasn't been too soon to proclaim we've been losing... |
But Black said relentless pressure from intelligence agencies was making it more difficult for al Qaeda to strike. "It is an organisation under stress," he said. "They spend more time worrying about their own operational security... which makes them less able to launch attacks."
Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-01-23 |
