Europeans trained in Pak terror camps planning attacks: Report

New York, Jun 21 (PTI) Dozens of white Europeans, trained
in terrorist camps in Pakistan's tribal belt, have been
dispatched to plan attacks against Europe and possibly the
U.S. in what the American intelligence fears may be beginning
of a new breed of al-Qaeda-affiliated terror, a media report
said.
The terrorists, ABC News said quoting intelligence
sources, hail from the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Romania
and Estonia.
There is growing evidence that some European recruits may
have already gone operational, the television network said,
adding that two of the suspects arrested in a September 2007
plot to kill American soldiers in Germany were native Germans.
An April 2008 report from Europol also noted that an
increasing number of European nationals attended training in
Pakistan" and were later involved in, or suspected of,
terrorist offences in the EU," the report said.
Intelligence officials told ABC News that the remote
tribal areas along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan
have in the last several years become a haven for terrorist
recruiting and training. Hundreds of radicals from across the
region have flocked to al-Qaeda training camps in the area.
In interviews with the network and in a series of
little-noticed public statements and reports, intelligence
officials have said they believe al-Qaeda has successfully
completed a major goal: recruiting and training Western
would-be terrorists.
"Al-Qaeda is improving the last key aspect of its ability
to attack the U.S.: the identification, training and
positioning of operatives for an attack in the Homeland," ABC
News said citing a February Threat Assessment report from the
Director of National Intelligence.
"We have seen an influx of new Western recruits into the
tribal area since mid-2006," the report said.
Those Western recruits, the television network said, are
thought to be more difficult to detect and able to easily
enter Europe and the US and blend in with Western culture.
"They're recruiting operatives from Europe. Why? If you're
from Europe, it doesn't require a visa to fly to the United
States," Mike McConnell, the Director of National
Intelligence, had said in a speech in March.
"So if you can get a disgruntled person in Europe to come
to Pakistan to be trained in how to buy something commercially
-- hydrogen peroxide -- (and) use it in a particular way, you
could have mass casualties in the United States greater than
9/11," he said, according to ABC News.
The network noted that CIA Director Michael Hayden, in a
speech in April, said the recruits "wouldn't cause you any
concern or draw your attention if they were in the passport
line at Dulles with you. I mean, they look Western and they
fit in. So that's one, the continued intent to attack,
training to attack, using Western operatives."
Despite these public warnings, the network said, members
of Congress, including Republicans, say they are frustrated
that the Bush administration and Pakistan have not done more
to shut down the camps.
"The result that we have today is not acceptable,"
Congressman Pete Hoekstra, Republican, was quoted as saying.
"You can't have those camps in place in Pakistan."
Intelligence officials told ABC News the administration
is trying to target key al-Qaeda leaders in the tribal regions
with Predator airplane attacks and recently killed one leader
who helped coordinate European operatives. The U.S. has also
urged the Pakistani government to be aggressive in pursuing
terrorist leaders in the tribal areas, these sources said.
The Pakistani government has said it is committed to
stopping militants in the area.