A Qaeda video showing the branch’s leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, second from right, and his deputy, Said Ali al-Shihri, second from left. IntelCenterJet Plot Shows Growing Ability of Qaeda Affiliates -- New York Times
WASHINGTON — The plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight over American soil on Christmas Day represents an ominously new and lethal ability by a branch of Al Qaeda to attack the United States directly, according to government and independent counterterrorism specialists.
Until now, American officials had expressed concern over the capability of Qaeda affiliates in North Africa, Yemen and Iraq, and a militant Islamist group in Somalia closely tied to Al Qaeda, to attack American and other Western targets in their regions. But they remained confident that these groups — unlike Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda in Pakistan — could not threaten the United States itself.
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My Comment: Al Qaeda's base of operations has been obliterated in Afghanistan, and what is left in Pakistan is slowing being squeezed by Pakistan and by CIA/Special Ops. Places like Yemen and the empty expanse of Africa is all that they have left .... and that is where they are going .... and quite frankly .... that is where we should also be.