Bin Laden, al-Qaida alive and well, CIA says - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Bin Laden, al-Qaida alive and well, CIA says

As widely assumed, Osama bin Laden is alive and is probably safely hiding in the remote tribal areas of Pakistan. More troubling, however, is that the activities of his al-Qaida terrorist group — still the No. 1 threat to the U.S. and its interests — appear to be increasing, a top CIA official told Congress on Wednesday.

“We see more training, we see more money, we see more communications,” said John Kringen, the CIA’s director of intelligence. “So we see that activity rising. At the same time, they are having success in the franchising ... and the branding.”

Al-Qaida, Kringen said, seems to be once again assuming more of a role in planning terrorist operations worldwide rather than letting loosely affiliated surrogates operate in a more laissez-faire manner — even as it continues to successfully recruit individuals and groups to its cause.

He cited the example of the former Algerian GSPC, now known as al-Qaida in the Maghreb, “where clearly, we see, as they have taken on that brand name, they have gotten more active,” Kringen said.

The U.S. military has about 25,000 troops in Afghanistan, 11,000 of whom are actively working to root out terrorists — both members of the resurgent extremist Islamist Taliban, which until December 2001 controlled Afghanistan, and al-Qaida, which used the country as its base of operations to plan, train for and launch the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

And as they have for at least five years, members of al-Qaida continue to operate back and forth across that nation’s long, rugged border with Pakistan, frustrating efforts to pursue them.

One member of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., expressed exasperation over the failure to capture bin Laden. Kringen said he empathized but said that the chase is hindered by a variety of factors.

“The challenge we face is that those are ungoverned spaces in which the Pakistani government doesn’t ... control much,” Kringen said. Tribes are in control there, he said. And bin Laden, he added, “goes into extended periods in which he does not communicate, does not interact with anyone directly.”

Andrews asked if there isn’t a distinction between an ungoverned area and one controlled by tribes. Why not try to get to bin Laden through those tribal leaders? “In some cases, those tribal leaders are the very people who are protecting him, sir,” Kringen said. “We’ve had rewards out for bin Laden for a long period of time. And economic motivation is not a principle driver.”

And, Andrews wanted to know, why not more progress? Kringen indicated he couldn’t be more specific in an open hearing, but said, “It’s an extremely challenging environment in which to operate and to turn individuals who would be the people who would have the access into people who are willing to work with the U.S. government.”

Earlier, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., asked Kringen what can be done to disrupt al-Qaida operations in Pakistan. “Sooner or later, you have to quit permitting them to have a safe haven there,” Kringen said. “At the end of the day, when we have had success, it’s when you’ve been able to get them worried about who is informing on them, get them worried about who is coming after them.”