Al Qaidas recruits

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

Al Qaida may be using non-Arab recruits to scout targets in the U.S. without raising suspicions, USA Today reported this week. A senior intelligence official said these al Qaida operatives, men and women, sometimes hide their Muslim faith and pose as Christians. Some come from Bosnia or Chechnya, and a few are believed to be Western European. They also work isolated from other al Qaida scouts, and from the terrorists waiting to carry out attacks. “There was a legitimate concern right after 9/11 that the face of international terrorism was basically from the Middle East,” Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said. “We know differently.”