Al Qaida still seeks to attack the United States, but domestic or solo extremists now "pose an equally serious threat," Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller warned on Thursday. "Al Qaida and its affiliates are still committed to striking us in the United States," Mueller told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, noting a plot to bomb New York City subways and the failed December attack aboard a U.S.-bound airliner. "Home-grown and lone-wolf extremists pose an equally serious threat," the FBI director said, citing the shootings at the Army base in Fort Hood, Texas. Experts have warned that an extremist acting alone, without connections to an established network like al Qaida, may be the most difficult threat for authorities to discover and prevent. "We have also seen U.S.-born extremists plotting to commit terrorism overseas," such as Mumbai attacks planner David Headley, Mueller said. "These terrorist threats are diverse, far-reaching, and ever-changing, and to combat these threats the FBI must sustain our overseas contingency operations and engage our intelligence and law-enforcement partners both here at home and abroad," the FBI chief said.
