Threat level rising

Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008 | 2 a.m.

It has been known for some time that al-Qaida terrorists fled across the border to Pakistan after U.S. forces destroyed their safe haven in Afghanistan.

And it is known that President Bush was wrong in late 2001 and in 2002 in saying that the terrorists behind 9/11 were on the run and hiding in caves.

Numerous reports in recent years have given a truer picture, that of a resurgent Taliban/al-Qaida network thriving in Pakistan’s border region and once again training recruits for terrorist attacks.

Still, it is sobering to hear the nation’s top intelligence official give those reports full credence, as happened Tuesday before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

“Using the sanctuary of the border area of Pakistan, al-Qaida has been able to maintain a cadre of skilled lieutenants capable of directing the organization’s operations around the world,” Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told the committee. “The (borderlands) serve as a staging area for al-Qaida attacks in support of the Taliban in Afghanistan, as well as a location for training new terrorist operatives for attacks in Pakistan, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the United States.

“Al-Qaida’s top leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, continue to be able to maintain al-Qaida’s unity and its focus on their strategic vision of confronting our allies and us with mass casualty attacks around the globe.”

Much of the responsibility for al-Qaida’s regeneration lies with President Bush, who in 2002 redirected most of the country’s attention, and military and financial resources, to Iraq.

Although that decision doomed the best opportunity for crushing al-Qaida, the capability remains to at least bombard its safe haven in Pakistan. Just last week a top al-Qaida leader and a dozen other terrorists were killed in the borderlands there, reportedly by a missile fired from an unmanned U.S. aircraft. The Pakistan government did not lodge a protest.

We hope the next president directs more resources toward this type of operation. Continuing to allow al-Qaida a virtual safe haven in Pakistan will be to our great peril.