The terrorist network Al-Qaida will likely leverage its contacts and capabilities in Iraq to mount an attack on US soil, according to a new National Intelligence Estimate on threats to the United States.

The declassified key findings released publicly yesterday laid out a range of dangers - from Al-Qaida to Lebanese Hezbollah to non-Muslim radical groups - that pose a "persistent and evolving threat" to the country over the next three years. As expected, however, the findings focus most attention on the gravest terror problem: Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida network.

The report makes clear that Al-Qaida in Iraq, which has not yet posed a direct threat to US soil, could become a problem.

"Of note," the analysts said, "we assess that Al-Qaida will probably seek to leverage the contacts and capabilities of Al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), its most visible and capable affiliate and the only one known to have expressed a desire to attack the homeland."

The analysts also found that Al-Qaida's association with its Iraqi affiliate helps the group to energize the broader Sunni Muslim extremist community, raise resources and recruit and indoctrinate operatives - "including for homeland attacks."

The White House brushed off critics who allege the administration released the intelligence estimate at the same time the Senate is debating Iraq.

In the last week, reports on this document and another threat assessment on Al-Qaida's resurgence have renewed the debate in Washington about whether the Bush administration is on the right course in its war on terror, particularly in Iraq.

(China Daily via agencies July 18, 2007)