FBI chief says al-Qaeda expanding its reach

WASHINGTON - Al-Qaeda is widening its reach by attracting an international network of extremists, making it tougher for authorities to detect those who may be targeting the United States, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller told a congressional committee yesterday.

The recruits have expanded the terrorist group's operational focus, "which may include attacks inside the United States," Mueller told the Senate homeland security committee. These individuals, who include Americans, can travel with fewer restrictions than known terrorists between regions of extremist activity and the United States, he added.

Prosecutors last week charged Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan man who lived in New York and Denver, with plotting to detonate explosives in the United States. He received bomb-making instructions while in Pakistan, where he attended an al-Qaeda training camp, according to the indictment.

Such recent law enforcement successes shouldn't make the public think that the terrorist group is no longer a threat, said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Ind., Conn.), the panel's chairman. "Al-Qaeda is still out there. They maintain a patient and hateful desire to attack the United States."

Mueller appeared before the panel with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center. The committee is assessing the terrorist threat eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Al-Qaeda recruits have become a focus for the FBI as operations by U.S. officials and their allies have captured or killed senior leaders of the terrorist group, hurting extremists' ability to mount attacks.

World leaders are further curbing al-Qaeda by enforcing sanctions against financiers of terrorist networks and through "political actions and propaganda" to counter anti-American sentiment in Muslim-majority countries, said Richard Barrett, coordinator of the United Nations' sanctions monitoring team.

Al-Qaeda leaders haven't "been able to persuade people that this is the right way," he said of the terrorist network's propaganda. "I don't think it's working anymore."

Affiliated extremist groups have filled the breach somewhat by fighting U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan and carrying out operations such as the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, in which 163 people were killed. Some extremist groups "that traditionally had only local agendas" have recently adopted a global perspective and linked up with al-Qaeda, Mueller said.

Other terror suspects have long-standing ties to al-Qaeda and its supporters.

Mueller cited Daniel Boyd of North Carolina, whom prosecutors earlier this year charged with supporting violent jihad.

According to the indictment, Boyd received training in terrorist camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan from 1989 through 1992, then came back to this country and eventually showed others how to carry out attacks.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon fired the top American official at the U.N. mission in Afghanistan yesterday after a dispute over how to deal with widespread fraud charges in the country's presidential election.

U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Ban decided to end the appointment of Peter Galbraith as deputy U.N. special representative.

Galbraith disagreed with the head of the U.N. mission, Kai Eide, over how the world body should handle the disputed election.

Galbraith said he was "surprised" by the decision and worried that "insufficient attention"

was given to how this might affect Afghanistan or the reputation of the United Nations.

Ban reaffirmed support for Eide and thanked Galbraith "for his hard work." He said he made his decision "in the best interest of the mission."

The delay in final results from the Aug. 20 vote has led to fears of a power vacuum in Afghanistan,

a potentially dangerous situation as Taliban violence continues to rise.

- Associated Press

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The Inquirer today continues "Those Who Gave All," a listing of service personnel killed in Afghanistan, at http:// go.philly.com/lineofduty, with troops' photos and hometowns. Also at the Web site, see earlier pages on those who died in the Afghan and Iraq missions. EndText