Al-Qa'ida: Ten Years after 9/11 and Beyond

Given the complexity of the attacks that occurred back on September 11th 2001, the intelligence community forecast there would likely be future attacks of equal if not greater intensity than what occurred ten years ago. Part of the reason for this pessimistic forecast was the intelligence community’s lack of understanding of the full capabilities of al-Qa’ida and its ability to conduct intercontinental attacks against the United States. We now know there would have been other successful attacks had the United States not gone on the offensive at home and abroad to disrupt a series of plots that would have resulted in serious loss of American lives as well as damage to our critical infrastructure and to our national psyche. Al-Qa’ida central may be slowly dying, but its tentacles around the world live on. These tentacles will remain alive for years to come. So the outlook for al-Qa’ida and its objective of inflicting major damage to the United States and Western countries has not changed, and the threat is very much with us and will remain so in 2011 and beyond. Adapted from the Introduction by the Honorable Charles E. Allen (Former Undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Collection, Central Intelligence Agency).