Demise of Al-Qaeda Coming, Says Counterterrorism Adviser
DEFEATING AL-QAEDA: Assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, John O. Brennan speaks during the daily press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, May 2. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) WASHINGTONThe Obama administration released a document that says al-Qaeda is under more pressure than at any time since 9/11. Called the National Strategy for Counterterrorism, it says in the last two and half years, we have made significant progress against al-Qaeda, and that its recently slain leader was demoralized before his death.
The National Strategy for Counterterrorism was posted on the White House website June 29. While the classified version is, of course, not available to the public, the unclassified version explained in simple terms how the president and his closest security advisers view the terrorist threat and how they intend to defeat it.
For this administration to a greater extent than its processor, the al-Qaeda network, its affiliates and adherents, is the principal focus of the counterterrorism strategy. There are a lot of bad guys out there for example, Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah, but al-Qaeda poses the most direct and significant threat to the United States, according to the report.
To explain the strategy, John O. Brennan spoke June 29 at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). With the official title, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, Brennan, 55, is Obamas chief counterterrorism adviser and generally confers with the president every day. He had a long CIA career, from 19802005, and has served many presidents.
Brennan said that the document formalizes the approach that has evolved in the previous two and half years to prevent terrorist attacks and to ensure al-Qaedas demise.
This is wara broad, sustained, integrated and relentless campaign that harnesses every element of American power. And we seek nothing less than the utter destruction of this evil that calls itself al-Qaeda, Brennan said.
Brennan said that specific counterterrorism goals in the Obama administration mostly continue the goals of the Bush administration. But there are some changes. For example, President Obama wants the worlds nuclear materials secured in four years time to prevent al-Qaeda from acquiring or developing weapons of mass destruction.
Brennan emphasized President Obamas ban, from his first days in office, of the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. Brennan said they do not work and America does not torture.
Brennan called for aggressively confronting the al-Qaeda ideology, which he called medieval, because it divides people by faith and gender rather than our approach, which assumes Muslims and Christians, men and women, secular and religious, can all work together.
He often contrasted the ideological difference between al-Qaeda and the United States. Brennan says that the United States promotes the peaceful resolution of political disputes and grievances, while al-Qaeda asserts the only way to achieve change is through violence.
Now that claim has been thoroughly repudiated by ordinary citizens, in Tunisia and Egypt and beyond, who are changing and challenging their governments through peaceful protest, even as they are sometimes met with horrific brutality, as in Libya and Syria, Brennan said.
The National Strategy for Counterterrorism was posted on the White House website June 29. While the classified version is, of course, not available to the public, the unclassified version explained in simple terms how the president and his closest security advisers view the terrorist threat and how they intend to defeat it.
For this administration to a greater extent than its processor, the al-Qaeda network, its affiliates and adherents, is the principal focus of the counterterrorism strategy. There are a lot of bad guys out there for example, Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah, but al-Qaeda poses the most direct and significant threat to the United States, according to the report.
To explain the strategy, John O. Brennan spoke June 29 at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). With the official title, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, Brennan, 55, is Obamas chief counterterrorism adviser and generally confers with the president every day. He had a long CIA career, from 19802005, and has served many presidents.
And we seek nothing less than the utter destruction of this evil that calls itself al-Qaeda.John Brennan, assistant t! o the pr esident for homeland security and counterterrorism.
Brennan said that the document formalizes the approach that has evolved in the previous two and half years to prevent terrorist attacks and to ensure al-Qaedas demise.
This is wara broad, sustained, integrated and relentless campaign that harnesses every element of American power. And we seek nothing less than the utter destruction of this evil that calls itself al-Qaeda, Brennan said.
Brennan said that specific counterterrorism goals in the Obama administration mostly continue the goals of the Bush administration. But there are some changes. For example, President Obama wants the worlds nuclear materials secured in four years time to prevent al-Qaeda from acquiring or developing weapons of mass destruction.
Brennan emphasized President Obamas ban, from his first days in office, of the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. Brennan said they do not work and America does not torture.
Brennan called for aggressively confronting the al-Qaeda ideology, which he called medieval, because it divides people by faith and gender rather than our approach, which assumes Muslims and Christians, men and women, secular and religious, can all work together.
He often contrasted the ideological difference between al-Qaeda and the United States. Brennan says that the United States promotes the peaceful resolution of political disputes and grievances, while al-Qaeda asserts the only way to achieve change is through violence.
Now that claim has been thoroughly repudiated by ordinary citizens, in Tunisia and Egypt and beyond, who are changing and challenging their governments through peaceful protest, even as they are sometimes met with horrific brutality, as in Libya and Syria, Brennan said.
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