Global Arab Network | Clinton: Al-Qaeda is "greater threat" than Iran & N. Korea

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Clinton: Al-Qaeda is "greater threat" than Iran & N. Korea

- Ahmed Gamal

Monday, 08 February 2010 00:12

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that Al-Qaeda has grown more "creative and flexible" since 2001 and poses greater threat to the United States than Iran and North Korea.

Clinton told CNN's "State of the Union" that there is "a continuing threat" from Al-Qaeda on the American people and US officials were only able to contain so far since "over the last six months, we have seen attacks foiled, people arrested and charged, so that you have to be constantly vigilant. And that is what everybody working in this government at all levels attempts to do".

She noted that there is "nothing new" about Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's tape claiming responsibility for the airline bombing attempt over Detroit last Christmas adding that "it is really important for people to just go along with their daily lives. you cannot be deterred or discouraged or fearful about what is happening and we just have to do everything we can to keep America safe".

Clinton said it is "very difficult to make that kind of assessment" about Al-Qaeda threat alert on the American soil since last year describing Al-Qaeda members as "a very committed, clever, diabolical group of terrorists who are always looking for weaknesses and openings".

"I do not see them as stronger, I see they are more creative, more flexible, more agile. They evolve", she added while saying "the biggest nightmare that any of us have is that one of these terrorist member organizations within this syndicate of terror will get their hands on a weapon of mass destruction".

"We see some new areas of threat emanating from Somalia and Yemen. But whether that is now in the cumulative greater, or whether because the numbers in Afghanistan and Pakistan have decreased, it is about the same but with the unfortunate fact that they are committed to killing and destroying innocent people in their own countries as well as around the world, including the United States", she added.

Clinton said that she held productive talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during her last stop in London affirming that he "has really stepped up since his second inaugural address".

But I always remind myself that five or six years into a new nation that has no history of democracy, let us be realistic about the kind of support that this new government and the president needs. So I think we have to put this into a more balanced perspective", she added.

Asked about North Korea and Iran nuclear programs, Clinton replied that Al-Qaeda poses "the greater threat".

Clinton noted that the US policy of engagement was fruitful last year while expressing willingness to talk to North Korea "if they were serious about returning to the Six-Party Talks and about denuclearizing in an irreversible way ... but because we were willing to engage, we ended up getting a very strong sanctions regime against North Korea that China signed onto and Russia signed onto and right now is being enforced around the world".

Clinton said she does not know "what the outcome would have been if the Iranian Government had not made the decision it made following the elections to become so repressive. But the fact is because we engaged, the rest of the world has really begun to see Iran the way we see it".

"When we started last year talking about the threats that Irans nuclear program posed, Russia and other countries said we do not see it that way. But through very slow and steady diplomacy, plus the fact that we had a two-track process, we reached out on engagement to Iran, but we always had the second track, which is that we would have to try to get the world community to take stronger measures if they did not respond on the engagement front", she concluded.

Meanwhile, White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan revealed on Sunday that he briefed four Republican congressional leaders on how the US administration is handling that arrest of the young Nigerian Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab who was behind the failed attempt in Detroit last Christmas day.

"None of those individuals raised any concerns with me, at that point. They did not say is going into military custody? They were very appreciative of the information. We told them we would keep them informed. And that is what we did", he told NBCs "Meet the Press".

Republicans in Congress have been critical of how the White House handling of the arrest of Abulmutallab anf the conduction of the investigation and later the prosecution.

"I explained to them that he was in FBI custody. That Mr. Abdulmutallab was in fact talking, that he was cooperating at that point".

The Republicans leaders that were informed are Senator Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senator Christopher Bond and House Representative Pete Hoekstra.

"I say that these are sensitive investigations and operations underway, and we are not going to compromise our ability to follow up on that information and to disrupt further terrorist attacks. And there have been instances when information has been shared with the Hill, when we see it in the media the next day", concluded Brennan. (KUNA)

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