Al-Qaeda planning fresh attacks on US, warns CIA chief

CIA director Michael Hayden warned today that al-Qaeda was plotting fresh attacks on the United States aimed at sowing death and destruction on a massive scale. His comments came just days ahead of the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and as the US government said it was analysing a copy of the latest video message said to have been made by al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

“Our analysts assess with high confidence that al-Qaeda’s central leadership is planning high impact plots against the American homeland,” Hayden told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “Al-Qaeda is focusing on targets that would produce mass casualties, dramatic destruction and significant economic aftershocks,” he added. “I want to be as clear as I can about the threat we face,” Hayden said, saying the Central Intelligence Agency would use “every inch we’re given” by the US Government to wage the “war on terror” and hunt down militants. “It’s very hard to see this thing as anything less than war,” he said criticising the media for references such as a “so-called war on terror.”