US fears imminent Al Qaeda attack from Afghan base

Al Qaeda could reconstitute itself in Afghanistan and be able to orchestrate attacks inside the United States within a year or two, two senior U.S. intelligence officials have said.

“The current, probably cautious, assessment is that within one to two years Al Qaeda will develop some capacity to at least threaten the homeland.”Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said Tuesday at an intelligence conference.

U.S. intelligence agencies are already seeing activities of the terrorist group once led by Osama bin Laden recover in Afghanistan, said CIA deputy director David Cohen, who agreed to the one to two year deadline.

The two intelligence leaders spoke on Tuesday at a summit in suburban Washington hosted by Alliance for National Security and Intelligence and the non-profit group AFCEA.

Corn The general warning that Al Qaeda will regain its ability to stage attacks against the United States from Afghanistan is not new. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate committee in June that “it would take them maybe two years to develop this capability.”

One of the most immediate threats comes from local terrorists inside the United States, intelligence officials said.