Thaindian News

By Arun Kumar
Washington, Dec 28 (IANS) Drawing down in Iraq and reorienting its priorities in the war on terror, the US is now focusing on Pakistan and Afghanistan where the 9/11 attacks originated and where more attacks are being planned against it, says the White House.

President Barack Obama “certainly has taken steps in his time in office to reorient our priorities as it comes to fighting that war on terror,” his spokesman Robert Gibbs told NBC Sunday to counter criticism after the foiled attack on a US plane that Obama was a soft touch.

“We’re drawing down in Iraq and focusing… on Pakistan and Afghanistan, the place where the attacks of 9/11 originated and where people sit in caves and in houses today planning more attacks in this country, using all elements of American power in places not just like Pakistan, but throughout the world in places like Yemen and Somalia.”

“And you’ve seen already leaders from Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia that have been targeted and eliminated,” he said assuring Americans that there was no let up against the terror outfit.

US authorities have charged Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, with trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet Friday, using explosives and chemicals he sneaked past security checkpoints in Lagos and then Amsterdam.

On another talk show Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said there was “no indication” yet Abdulmutallab had taken his orders from Al Qaeda or that the attack was part of a broader terror plot.

“Right now we have no indication that it is part of anything larger,” Napolitano told CNN noting the suspect was on a broad security watch list that contains “half a million” names and is shared with airlines and foreign security agencies.

However, a lack of specific evidence prevented him from being classified as a greater security risk that would bar him from travel to the United States, she said. “You need information that is specific and credible if you’re going to bar people from air travel.”

Security screening has been increased in the wake of the incident, with different procedures at different airports to prevent predictability, Napolitano said. “While we continue to investigate the source of this incident, the travelling public should be very confident of what we’re doing now.”

But asked on CNN if the plane attack bore the markings of Al Qaeda, former CIA acting director John McLaughlin replied: “it certainly feels that way.”

“This man had been in London, where there is frequent evidence of recruitment by Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda-related people. He claims to have been in touch with Yemenis.

“And Yemen is a place where Al Qaeda is on the move, a strong movement there. And I think it’s an exaggeration to say that Al Qaeda has been weakened to the point where we don’t have to worry about it anymore,” he said.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)