U.S. official: Al Qaeda in Yemen bigger threat than in Pakistan

[Turborama]

Source: CNN International

By Larry Shaughnessy, CNN Pentagon Producer
December 18, 2010 -- Updated 0240 GMT (1040 HKT)

The administration's top counterterrorism adviser said Friday that the al Qaeda group based in Yemen poses a greater threat to Americans than Osama bin Laden's group based in Pakistan.

John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said the Yemen-based group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is "increasingly active" in reaching out to find terrorist recruits, even in the United States.

"Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is now the most operationally active node of the al Qaeda network," Brennan said during a forum at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"The ranks of al Qaeda have been bolstered by members with ties to the West, or with American citizenship, such as Anwar al-Awlaki," he said. "Indeed, al Qaeda is seeking to attract not just Westerners or Americans overseas, but Americans inside the United States."

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/12/17/al.qaeda.yemen/