Al Qaeda

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"If we had embedded a covert agent into al Qaeda close to [Osama] bin Laden, 9/11 might never have happened," says former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. (The Washington Times)

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Yemeni soldiers guard convicted al Qaeda militants in San'a, Yemen, on July 11, 2010. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Janne Kristiansen, director of the Norwegian Police Security Service, speaks at press conference in Oslo, Thursday, July 8, 2010, after three suspected al Qaeda members were arrested in what Norwegian and U.S. officials said was a terrorist plot linked to similar plans in New York and England. (AP Photo/Morten Holm, Scanpix)

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A page from the first edition of Inspire, an online recruitment tool for jihadists that touts itself as the first magazine to be issued by al Qaeda in English. Al Qaeda in Yemen published a second edition of the magazine on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010.

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A page of the online magazine Inspire, a recruitment tool for jihadists that touts itself as the first magazine to be issued by al Qaeda in English. It appears to be the brainchild of radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a target of the Obama administration.

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A page of Inspire, a new online recruitment tool for jihadists that touts itself as the first magazine to be issued by al Qaeda in English. Due to technical glitches, only its first three pages are available.

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Anwar al-Awlaki, whom authorities say is directly connected to a terrorism plot in the U.S., is the spiritual leader of the group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization. (Associated Press)

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An American armed with a pistol and a 40-inch sword was detained in northern Pakistan and told investigators he was on a solo mission to kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a police officer said Tuesday, June 15, 2010. (AP Photo/File)

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** FILE ** Adam Gadahn, the American-born al Qaeda spokesman seen in these undated file photos released by the FBI, called on Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces to emulate the Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood. (AP Photo/FBI-released photos, File)

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** FILE ** Al Qaeda makes its presence known in a Muslim area of Kano, Nigeria. The increasingly active and growing Islamic Maghreb is threatening to further destabilize fragile governments in heavily Islamic North Africa. (Associated Press)

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SUSPECT: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab made statements to the FBI that mirrored al Qaeda's claims, an intelligence official says. (U.S. Marshals Service via Associated Press)

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** FILE ** This video frame grab image provided by IntelCenter, a private terrorism analysis company, and taken from a video released on Friday Nov. 28, 2008, by the media arm of al QaEda, As-Sahab, shows Ayman al Zawahiri speaking in a video entitled "al-Azhar," or "The Lion's Den." Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader called on Americans to embrace Islam to overcome the financial meltdown, which he said was a consequence of the Sept. 11 attacks and militant strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/IntelCenter)