Washington, September 11: Eight years after the September 11 attacks, a weakened Al Qaeda remains a tenacious enemy, US officials say, but Americans are growing weary of the fight against terror.
The Al Qaeda network is “still very capable” of attacking the US and “very focused” on its goal, top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen said.
Despite a change of leadership in the White House, the campaign launched by George W Bush remains a top priority, with his successor Barack Obama vowing to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda” sheltering in Pakistan.
The fight against those who staged the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York and Washington has deprived Osama bin Laden’s terror network of a safe haven in Afghanistan, after the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime at the end of 2001.
The organisation has suffered serious setbacks, with several key figures captured and 11 leaders or associates killed since July 2008, including Abu Khabab Al Masri, chemical and biological arms expert, and Baitullah Mehsud, head of the Pakistan Taliban.
US intelligence agencies, however, disagree that Al Qaeda has faded as a threat.
“It is feeling some intense pressure at the moment, especially with the loss of several of the group’s top leaders,” said a US counter-terrorism official.
“Many people are tired of fighting terrorism, they’ve been exhausted both in terms of money, in terms of patience, in terms of loss American lives in Iraq, and therefore don’t have the fortitude to carry on especially at a time of economic downturn,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University.
Meanwhile, for the first time since the September 11 attacks, the US is tackling the fight against terror by insisting on traditional values rather than force, moving beyond the Bush era.
A total ban on torture; a pledge to close the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; shuttering secret CIA detention centres: the most controversial fronts of the US “war on terror” launched by Bush have been all but banished after Obama’s arrival in the White House.
–Agencies–