CIA Sez Scuzzy Muzzy Al Qaida Recruits Westerners

http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/al_qaida_hayden_recruitin/2008/03/30/84214.html

CIA Chief: Al Qaida Recruits Westerners

Sunday, March 30, 2008

WASHINGTON - Al Qaeda is training fighters that "look western" and could

easily cross U.S. borders without attracting attention, CIA Director Michael

Hayden said on Sunday.

The militant Islamist group has turned Pakistan's remote tribal areas along

the border with Afghanistan into a safe haven, and is using it to plot

further attacks against the United States, Hayden said.

"They are bringing operatives into that region for training -- operatives

that wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs

line at Dulles (airport outside Washington) with you when you were coming

back from overseas," Hayden said during an interview on NBC's television

show Meet the Press.

"(They) look western (and) would be able to come into this country without

attracting the kinds of attention that others might," Hayden said, without

offering further details.

The United States went to war in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks

on U.S. cities in order to crush al Qaeda and hunt down its chief, Osama bin

Laden, who Hayden confirmed was still believed by the United States to be

hiding in the rugged Afghan border area.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the United States had stepped

up unilateral attacks on al Qaeda targets in Pakistan because it fears the

country's newly elected leaders will soon curb U.S. actions on their soil.

Pakistan's pro-U.S. president, Pervez Musharraf, has been weakened by the

defeat of his allies in the country's recent elections.

Hayden declined to comment directly on the Post article, but he stressed

that the tribal regions were very sensitive.

"The situation along that Afghanistan/Pakistan border presents a clear and

present danger to Afghanistan, to Pakistan, to the West in general and the

United States in particular," Hayden said.

"It is very clear to us that al Qaeda has been able over the last 18 months

or so to establish a safe haven along the Afghan/Pakistan border that they

have not enjoyed before."

Asked directly whether he feared Musharraf might not be around as president

for much longer to support the United States, Hayden said he did not know,

but praised what the country had already delivered.

"We have not had a better partner in the war against terrorism than the

Pakistani government," he said.