America is a nation at war: CIA Director

( TF.SF) Washington: A top American intelligence official has said that the United States is a nation at war which is facing threat from al-Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan. We are a nation at war. We are confronting a war in Afghanistan and a war in Iraq. We are confronting al-Qaeda and other terrorists in Pakistan," CIA Director Leon Panetta said at the Nationally Black Colleges and Universities Week Conference on Tuesday. Panetta said his agency's first responsibility is to protect the safety of the US. "We are confronting the challenge of nuclear proliferation in countries like North Korea and Iran... We are confronting a whole new challenge of something called cyber-security, which has the potential to in fact bring down our markets, bring down our power grid system, bring down our water systems and cripple this country," the CIA chief said. The US is also confronting the challenge of instability in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and in places like Yemen and Somalia, he said. "The CIA has to be an intelligence organisation that understands what our adversaries are thinking. What are they doing? What are their secrets? What are their strategies?" he said, adding we have to understand those dangers, those opportunities as America faces a world that confronts a number of challenges to our safety. "This is not about the past. This is about the present and the future," Panetta argued.

US must stay in Afghanistan to defeat Al-Qaeda: chiefs

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Top US military chiefs sought to convince a war-weary public that President Barack Obama's new strategy will work in Afghanistan, saying troops must stay there to defeat Al-Qaeda."There is a limited time for us to show that this is working," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at a Pentagon press conference held after new polls showed American support for the war had waned."We are mindful of that, we understand the concerns of many Americans in that area, but we think that we now have the resources and the right approach to start making some headway," said Gates.He was joined by Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said the fight against Al-Qaeda could not be won if US troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan now, as some commentators have advocated."There's no way to defeat Al-Qaeda, which is the mission, with just that approach, you can't do it remotely, you can't do it offshore," Mullen said. "I certainly don't think it's time to leave."Their comments came two days after General Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, submitted a review of America's strategy in Afghanistan that is widely expected to include a request for more troops...MORE..http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090904/wl_afp/afghanistanusunrestmilitary_20090904031840;_ylt=At993sKSXPjZB89JrduEvKEHS5Z4