CIA CHEIF: Al-QAIDA LIKELY TO ATTEMPT U.S. ATTACK IN THE NEXT 3 TO 6 MONTHS.

[ZyeCha Inc. CEO/Founder PRINA]

Al-Qaida can be expected to attempt an attack on the United States in the next three to six
months, senior U.S. intelligence officials told Congress Tuesday.

The terrorist organization is deploying operatives to the United States
to carry out new attacks from inside the country, including "clean"
recruits with a negligible trail of terrorist contacts, CIA Director
Leon Panetta said. The chilling warning comes as Christmas Day airline
attack suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutullab is cooperating with federal
investigators, a federal law enforcement official said Tuesday.

Al-Qaida is also inspiring homegrown extremists to trigger violence on
their own, Panetta said.

The annual assessment of the nation's terror threats provided no
startling new terror trends, but amplified growing concerns since the
Christmas Day airline attack in Detroit that militants are growing
harder to detect and moving more quickly in their plots.

"The biggest threat is not so much that we face an attack like 9/11. It
is that al-Qaida is adapting its methods in ways that oftentimes make it
difficult to detect," Panetta told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Several senators tangled over whether suspected terrorists should be
tried in civilian or military court. At the same time, a group of
bipartisan lawmakers introduced legislation that would force the Obama
administration to backtrack on its plans to try Sept. 11 defendants in
federal court in New York and use military tribunals instead.

As al-Qaida presses new terror plots, it is increasingly relying on new
recruits with minimal training and simple devices to carry out attacks,
Panetta said as part of the terror assessment to Congress.

Panetta also warned of the danger of extremists acting alone: "It's the
lone-wolf strategy that I think we have to pay attention to as the main
threat to this country," he said.

The hearing comes just over a month since a failed attempt to bring down
an airliner in Detroit, allegedly by a Nigerian suspect. And the
assessment comes only a few months after U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hassan is
accused of single-handedly attacking his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood,
Texas, killing 13.

National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said with changes made since
the Dec. 25 attack, U.S. intelligence would he able to identify and
stop someone like the Detroit bomber before he got on the plane. But he
warned a more careful and skilled would-be terrorist might not be
detected.

FBI Director Robert Mueller defended the FBI's handling of the Detroit
attempted bombing attack, disputing assertions that agents
short-circuited more intelligence insights from the Nigerian suspect by
quickly providing him with his Miranda rights to remain silent.

Mueller was asked by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, D-Calif., whether the interrogation of Abdulmutullab
continues despite the fact that the suspect had already been read his
legal right to remain silent. Mueller replied: "Yes."

Mueller said that in "case after case," terrorists have provided
actionable intelligence even after they were given their rights and
charged with crimes. Mueller said they know such cooperation can result
in shorter sentences or other consideration from the government.

Hundreds of terror suspects have already been convicted in civilian
federal courts, including convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid.

But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., offered a bill Tuesday that would
prohibit the government from using Justice Department funds to prosecute
suspects charged in the Sept. 11 attack in civilian courts.

The move comes on the heels of the Obama administration's decision to
rethink whether it would try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in a
New York City courtroom.

The proposed law would cover people who legally could be prosecuted by a
military commission, applying to terror suspects who are not U.S.
citizens. By Tuesday evening, the bill had support from 18 senators,
mostly Republicans.

During the terror assesment hearing, Blair also warned of the growing
cyberthreat, saying computer-related attacks have become dynamic and
malicious.

Obama has promised to make cybersecurity a priority in his
administration, but the president's new budget asks for a decrease in
funds for the Homeland Security Department's cybersecurity division.

The government's first quadrennial homeland security review states high
consequence and large-scale cyberattacks could massively disable or hurt
international financial, commercial and physical infrastructure.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said these types of
cyberattacks could cripple the movement of people and goods around the
world and bring vital social and economic programs to a halt.

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