Al Qaeda's ability to attack US is wanning

According to the former chief of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency, Richard Dearlove, al Qaeda's ability to attack the US or Britain is wanning due to improved security cooperation between the two countries.

But does al Qaeda even need to carry out attacks against the US or Britain? There are plenty of muslims in Britain and the US who share the same ideology as al Qaeda and who are willing to carry out attacks on their own. One just has to refer to the recent Ft. Hood terrorist attack to understand we have bigger problems than just al Qaeda.

From Bloomberg

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The al-Qaeda terrorist network may be losing its capacity to launch large-scale attacks in the U.S. and U.K. because of improved security cooperation, Richard Dearlove, former chief of Britain’s MI6 spy agency, said.

“It could be the movement is past the high point in its ability to mount mass-casualty events in the West,” Dearlove said in an interview in London late yesterday. “It’s because the bar has been raised, the door has been shut.”

Dearlove, 64, served as chief of MI6, known officially as the Secret Intelligence Service, from 1999 to 2004, and his tenure included the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. “There is much more international security cooperation,” he said, though “the threat is not completely removed.”