<p>US counter-terrorism officials have authenticated a video by an al-Qaeda recruiter threatening to do so, the Washington Times reported on Wednesday describing it as “the latest sign of the terrorist group’s determination to stage” such an attack.<br />The video aired earlier this year as a recruitment tool makes clear that al-Qaeda is looking to exploit weaknesses in US border security and also is willing to ally itself with white militia groups or other anti-government entities interested in carrying out an attack inside the US, the daily said citing unnamed counter-terrorism officials interviewed by it.<br />The officials, it said, stressed that there is no credible information that al-Qaeda has acquired the capabilities to carry out a mass biological attack although its members have clearly sought the expertise.<br />The video first aired by the Arabic news network Al Jazeera in February and later posted to several websites shows Kuwaiti dissident Abdullah al-Nafisi telling a room full of supporters in Bahrain that al-Qaeda is casing the US border with Mexico to assess how to send terrorists and weapons into the US. The Times cited a US counter-terrorism official as saying al-Nafisi is a “person of interest” and a veteran recruiter for al-Qaeda.<br />Misidentified on some blog sites as a professor, he is a Qaeda associate who is thought to have communicated with senior Qaeda leaders in recent years, the official said.<br />The recruiter is said to have close ties to Mullah Mohammed Omar, the senior Afghan Taliban leader now thought to be in Pakistan. Al-Nafisi “is a significant ideological player in terrorist circles, and that makes him dangerous because he can inspire his followers to do extremely bad things,” the official said.<br />Agencies<br /><br />British hostage in Mali killed<br /><br />Al-Qaeda’s North African wing said it had carried out its threat to kill a British hostage it was holding in the Sahara, Reuters reports from London. Britain said it had reason to believe the hostage, Edwin Dyer, had been killed.<br />The AQIM (al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) had said it would kill the Briton if Britain did not release Abu Qatada, a Jordanian Islamist in UK prison.<br />Dyer was killed on May 31 after a second deadline expired. “The British captive was killed so that he, and with him the British state, may taste a tiny portion of what innocent Muslims taste every day at the hands of the Crusader and Jewish coalition to the east and to the west,” the group said in a statement.</p>
<p>US counter-terrorism officials have authenticated a video by an al-Qaeda recruiter threatening to do so, the Washington Times reported on Wednesday describing it as “the latest sign of the terrorist group’s determination to stage” such an attack.<br />The video aired earlier this year as a recruitment tool makes clear that al-Qaeda is looking to exploit weaknesses in US border security and also is willing to ally itself with white militia groups or other anti-government entities interested in carrying out an attack inside the US, the daily said citing unnamed counter-terrorism officials interviewed by it.<br />The officials, it said, stressed that there is no credible information that al-Qaeda has acquired the capabilities to carry out a mass biological attack although its members have clearly sought the expertise.<br />The video first aired by the Arabic news network Al Jazeera in February and later posted to several websites shows Kuwaiti dissident Abdullah al-Nafisi telling a room full of supporters in Bahrain that al-Qaeda is casing the US border with Mexico to assess how to send terrorists and weapons into the US. The Times cited a US counter-terrorism official as saying al-Nafisi is a “person of interest” and a veteran recruiter for al-Qaeda.<br />Misidentified on some blog sites as a professor, he is a Qaeda associate who is thought to have communicated with senior Qaeda leaders in recent years, the official said.<br />The recruiter is said to have close ties to Mullah Mohammed Omar, the senior Afghan Taliban leader now thought to be in Pakistan. Al-Nafisi “is a significant ideological player in terrorist circles, and that makes him dangerous because he can inspire his followers to do extremely bad things,” the official said.<br />Agencies<br /><br />British hostage in Mali killed<br /><br />Al-Qaeda’s North African wing said it had carried out its threat to kill a British hostage it was holding in the Sahara, Reuters reports from London. Britain said it had reason to believe the hostage, Edwin Dyer, had been killed.<br />The AQIM (al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) had said it would kill the Briton if Britain did not release Abu Qatada, a Jordanian Islamist in UK prison.<br />Dyer was killed on May 31 after a second deadline expired. “The British captive was killed so that he, and with him the British state, may taste a tiny portion of what innocent Muslims taste every day at the hands of the Crusader and Jewish coalition to the east and to the west,” the group said in a statement.</p>