Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Michael Leiter speaks at The Aspen Institute

On April 9, 2009, Michael Leiter, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, addressed a gathering of leaders from government, industry, media, and the public policy community convened by the Aspen Institute’s Homeland Security Program at the Institute’s Washington offices. Director Leiter discussed the current state of Al Qaeda and the degree to which it continues to pose a threat to the nation.

In brief, he argued that efforts to kill or capture senior leadership in the last year or so have succeeded in significantly diminishing Al Qaeda’s ability to strike the homeland. Still, the group continues to be a major security threat, and defeating it must remain a top priority for policymakers, notwithstanding the economic crisis and the many other domestic and foreign crises that now vie for our leaders’ attention.