Usama bin Laden is isolated from the day-to-day operations of Al Qaeda, but the terrorist organization he built is spreading its influence in Africa and the Middle East, CIA Director Michael Hayden said Thursday.
Al Qaeda remains the single greatest threat to the United States, Hayden said in a speech to the Atlantic Council. “If there is a major strike on this country, it will bear the fingerprints of Al Qaeda.”
“He is putting a lot of energy into his own survival — a lot of energy into his own security,” Hayden said in a speech at the Atlantic Council in Washington.
“All the threats we have to the West have a thread that takes it back to the (Afghanistan/Pakistan) border,” Hayden added.
Hayden said there has been no spike in terrorist “chatter” to suggest an attack on the United States linked to the presidential transition.
“But we don’t know what we don’t know,” he said.
