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Intel Chief: Al Qaeda Hurting, Iran ‘More Willing’ to Launch Attacks in US
An emboldened Iran is "now more willing" to launch an attack inside the United States, America's top intelligence official told Congress Tuesday, adding that the global threat posed by Al Qaeda's central leadership has been diminished.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper outlined what he described as a "critical transition phase for the terrorist threat" in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. With Usama bin Laden and many of his former deputies dead, Clapper said the group's leadership is thinned, its capabilities "degraded" and its focus on "smaller, simpler plots."
"Al Qaeda core's ability to perform has weakened significantly," he said.