Local Editor The head of the US national intelligence warned Wednesday that "Syria has created an international hotbed of terrorism that threatens the United States homeland and is likely to grow even worse in the months and years to come."  James Clapper joined the heads of the FBI and CIA to warn that Syria was effectively becoming the next Afghanistan -- a safe haven where extremists around the world could recruit new fighters and plan new attacks against Europe and the US.Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee that there are an estimated 7,000 foreign fighters in Syria from some 50 countries, including many in Europe. Those extremists are of particular concern to Western security services because they could theoretically use their European passports to travel to the continent freely and carry out new strikes. He also noted that the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front has "aspirations" for an attack on the US homeland. "This is a huge concern to all of us," he said. Clapper, citing the intelligence community's new Worldwide Threat Assessment, estimated that 1,600 militant groups were operating inside the war-torn country, including a sizable chunk of extremists. Between the 75,000 to 110,000 fighters inside Syria, "about 26,000 we'd rate as extremists," he said. "Syria has become a huge magnet for extremists," Clapper told the panel. Dianne Feinstein, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, observed that the threat from Syria had grown from last year's intelligence assessments. "This leads to the major concern of safe haven and the real prospect that Syria will be a launching point or ‘weigh station' for terrorists seeking to attack the United States or other nations," she said. The officials also offered assessments on other security risks including the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, the spate of leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and the dispersal of al Qaeda into splintered terrorist cells in the Middle East and North Africa. Clapper condemned Snowden's leaks of classified surveillance programs and requested that he return the stolen information immediately. Meanwhile, FBI Director Jim Comey said he and his Russian FSB counterparts were working together to ensure the safety of athletes and spectators at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. The security of the games has emerged as a major concern because a so-called "Black Widow" -- or female suicide bomber -- may already be loose in Sochi. European authorities have estimated that at any one time, as many as 100 British men are training and fighting with Syrian rebels, often with the most militant factions. Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team |
30-01-2014 | 09:00 |
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