Detroit, Dec 26 (IANS) The ranking Republican on the US House Intelligence Committee says the suspected terrorist incident at Detroit Metro Airport could provide further evidence of a Yemen-based branch of al-Qaeda planning an attack on American soil.
“It’s not surprising,” US Representative Pete Hoekstra, a Holland Republican, was quoted as saying in Detroit’s Free Press Journal of the alleged terrorist attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight.

A Nigerian who authorities said had told them he was ordered by al-Qaeda to detonate an explosive was in custody. Reports linked the explosives to Yemen, the Journal said.

“People have got to start connecting the dots here and maybe this is the thing that will connect the dots for the Obama administration,” said Hoekstra.

Noting that Major Nidal Malik Hasan - the US Army officer who is accused of killing more than a dozen people at Fort Hood, Texas, last month - was allegedly linked to a radical cleric now in Yemen, Hoekstra said this latest incident could be “one more indication” that the al-Qaeda branch there is planning attacks.

Hoekstra hadn’t yet been briefed on the incident but said he is already calling on the Obama administration to meet with Intelligence Committee members to fully inform them about the alleged terrorism attempt at the Detroit airport.