Safer, but not safe

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

Five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, al Qaida remains determined to use weapons of mass destruction against the U.S. and its allies, the White House said this week. In a 23-page “National Strategy for Combating Terrorism,” the Bush administration said the U.S. has “significantly degraded” al Qaida’s capabilities, but that it remains the driving force of a global terrorist movement. “They continue to this day to obsess about killing mass amounts of Americans and mass amounts of our allies around the world,” said homeland security advisor Frances Townsend. The report calls on Americans to create a culture of “preparedness,” including “a shared acknowledgement of the certainty of future catastrophes.”