Respect rule of law in Al-Qaeda ‘war’—US official

NEW YORK—As the United States pursues its nearly decade-old war against a weakened Al-Qaeda, it must protect Muslim Americans from being scapegoated, a senior White House official said Friday.

“Nearly 10 years after the September 11 terrorist attacks the United States remains at war with Al-Qaeda and its adherents,” John Brennan, the White House counterterrorism and homeland security advisor, said.

Brennan told a New York security conference that the radical Islamist organization’s senior leadership “is increasingly hunkered down in its safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal regions.”

He said Al-Qaeda was at its “weakest point since 2001” and that its jihadist ideology had been “rejected by the overwhelming majority of Muslims.”

Popular revolts against authoritarian, mostly secular governments across the Arab world, he noted, have barely featured Al-Qaeda.

“One of the things that is most notable about what’s going on the Middle East is that Al-Qaeda has not been anywhere near the forefront of any of these activities. It is a populist and for the most part secular phenomenon,” Brennan said at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

However, according to the White House expert, Al-Qaeda is mutating into an increasingly unpredictable presence — including on US soil — that requires a sophisticated response.

“Groups and individuals have sprung up in places like Pakistan, Yemen and North Africa,” he said. “We have also seen this problem begin to manifest itself here at home. A very small but increasing number of individuals here in the United States have become captivated by these violent causes.”

Brennan warned an Al-Qaeda attack could “have grave and major consequences on our country in terms of loss of life and damage to our economy.”

However, he spoke strongly about the need to protect civil rights and, whenever possible, to use civilian courts to try terrorism suspects.

Apparently referring to debates about whether Muslims should be subject to greater scrutiny, Brennan stressed “how un-American it is to single out groups because of their ethnic background, religious affiliation, or political association.”

He said that anti-terrorism intelligence often depended on cooperation between law enforcement bodies and local communities.

“Trust is critical,” he said. “If that trust is harmed it can have devastating consequences.”

He said that “we’ve learned a lot of lessons” since 9/11 and that “informed engagement… is not based on uninformed allegations and preconceived notions about what certain groups, certain religious people are trying to do. That’s why the FBI has to be very careful, and they are, I think, increasingly careful.”

Brennan said that despite setbacks the White House “remains committed” to the closure of the controversial military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, calling this “important for our national security interests.”

He said many in the world, especially in countries overthrowing dictatorships, watched how the United States treated suspects.

“As we’re insisting on adherence to the rule of law in countries that are going through this political reform, we need to remember what we mean by rule of law and adherence to it in this country,” he said.

The White House official assured that terrorism suspects arrested on US soil, and US citizens anywhere, “will be processed exclusively through our criminal justice system, as they should be.”

“Our civilian courts have proven they are up to the job,” he said.