Dept. Homeland Security Chief: Terrorism Threat at “its most heightened state”

DHS Chief Napolitano warns of heightened terrorist threat:

The threat of terrorism is at “its most heightened state” since the 9/11 attacks nearly a decade ago, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said today.

“The terrorist threat facing our country has evolved significantly in the last ten years — and continues to evolve — so that, in some ways, the threat facing us is at its most heightened state since those attacks,” she said before the House Homeland Security Committee.

Her comments were a sobering reminder that the potential of another attack is real and growing, most notably from individuals radicalized inside the United States, despite elaborate security measures implemented by the government since 2001.

“One of the most striking elements of today’s threat picture is that plots to attack America increasingly involve American residents and citizens,” Napolitano said, referring to so-called homegrown terrorists fueled by the Internet and connections with operatives overseas.

Wikileaks Cable Shows Three Qatari Men as Possible 9/11 Plotters

Revelations or non-news?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A classified U.S. document obtained by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks shows three previously undisclosed participants in the September 11, 2001 plot, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The three Qatari men arrived in the United States on August 15, 2001, conducted surveillance of targets and left the country on the eve of the September 11 attacks, according to the leaked U.S. diplomatic cable.

The three men “visited the World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty, the White House, and various areas in Virginia” before flying on to Los Angeles, according to the leaked document.

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the three Qataris were “looked at” within days of the attacks and that investigators concluded they could not be charged, The Washington Post reported.

“There is no manhunt,” the official was quoted as saying. “There is no active case. They were looked at, but it washed out,” he was quoted as saying, downplaying a report by Britain’s The Daily Telegraph, which said the FBI has launched a manhunt for the previously unknown team of men suspected to be part of the attacks.