Those behind the 9/11 terror strikes are still in the Af-Pak region and planning more attacks against the U.S., said officials on Monday.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Obama administration had re-oriented its focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“We are drawing down in Iraq and focusing on Pakistan and Afghanistan, the place where the attacks of 9/11 originated and where people sit in caves and in houses today planning more attacks on this country,” he told the NBC channel.
He said the administration had renewed its approach towards addressing the threat coming from the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and strengthened its partnership with many countries.
“The President certainly has taken steps in his time in office to re-orient our priorities as it comes to fighting that war on terror. Now, we’ve strengthened our partnerships and cooperation with a number of countries, including Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan, as I mentioned before, and used all elements of our American power to seek to eliminate heads of Al-Qaeda, and we’ve had great success in all three of those countries,” he said.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, appearing on the NBC news channel, admitted that the Al-Qaeda remained a source of threat streams to the world.
“That leadership, that organisation, that training, much of it emanates from the Afghanistan-Pakistan area and that is why going after Al-Qaeda is such an important part of President’s Afghanistan strategy,” she said.
