Terror Threat: 'Safe Havens' Breeding Terrorist Activity

July 17, 2007 — -- A new intelligence report predicts that al Qaeda will intensify efforts to put operatives in the United States and that safe havens have allowed terror groups to plan attacks and to recruit and train radicals around the world.

The latest National Intelligence Estimate says al Qaeda's "central leadership continues to plan high-impact plots."

"We are facing a persistent terrorist enemy led by al Qaeda that remains driven and intent on attacking the homeland and that continues to adapt and improve its capabilities," White House homeland security adviser Frances Townsend told reporters after the report's key findings were released today.

The NIE is compiled from intelligence gathered by the 16 spy agencies maintained by the federal government. A portion of the report was declassified for the public.

"We assess the group has protected or regenerated key elements of its homeland attack capability, including: a safe haven in the Pakistan Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), operational lieutenants and its top leadership," according to the estimate.

"We see a firming up of their capability, primarily because of the safe haven," one official said at a briefing on the report. Said another, "The existence of this safe haven is critical to their ability to train and to plan."

ABC News has reported on the concern over those tribal regions in Pakistan. Intelligence sources say that little has been done to take down terrorists using the regions as a nerve center for training and planning.

Sunday, reports flowed out of the North Waziristan tribal region, an area known to be hospitable to radical groups, that pro-Taliban militants had pulled out of a peace accord the government had forged in the fall.

"Any place in the world, whether it's Pakistan or Iraq, or Somalia where al Qaeda or its affiliates have a space where they can train, recruit, indoctrinate and experiment, that creates a danger for this country," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told ABC last week.