Biden on CNN: Al Qaeda Backpack Bombers to Hit U.S. Soon; Claims Iraq "Great Achievement" of Obama
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 | Kristinn
Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 8:39:07 PM by kristinn
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Vice President Joe Biden taped an interview for broadcast tonight with Larry King to be shown at 9 p.m. EST on CNN.
In the interview Biden says that a 9/11-type mass casualty attack is "unlikely," but that al Qaeda will likely hit the U.S. mainland with backpack bombers in the next few months.
Biden also bragged that Iraq will be one of the "great achievements" of the Obama administration.
Biden said his greatest concern is the nuclear weapons situation with Pakistan and Iran, respectively.
Excerpts:
KING: Terror -- last week on terrorism, the heads of the major U.S.
intelligence agencies told Dianne Feinstein that another attempted terrorist attack on the United States is coming certain in the next few months.
BIDEN: Well...
KING: What do you make of that?
BIDEN: Well, look, let me put it this way. The idea of there being a massive attack in the United States like 9/11 is unlikely, in my view.
But if you see what's happening, particularly with al Qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula, they have decided to move in the direction of much more small bore but devastatingly frightening attacks.
KING: Detroit?
BIDEN: Detroit. But I think what you're seeing morphing here -- and it's a concern to us -- is you'll see the -- the concern relates to somebody like a shoe bomber or the underpants bomber, the Christmas attack or someone just strapping a backpack on them with weapons that are indigenous and blowing up, you know, walking into (INAUDIBLE)...
KING: So that's going to happen?
BIDEN: Well, I -- I think there are going to be an attempts. I hope we've been -- I've been really impressed. As I said, I've been here for eight presidents. I used to be in the Intelligence Committee. I was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. It's something I spent my professional life doing. I've been really impressed with the success we've had, building on the last administration, in dealing with these.
SNIP
BIDEN: -- Pakistan. But you...
KING: Pakistan?
BIDEN: Well, you've heard me say that for the last 10 years. I think it's the -- it's a big country. It has nuclear weapons that are able to be deployed. It has a real significant minority of radicalized population. It is -- it is not a completely functional democracy in the sense we think about it. And so it's -- it -- that's my greatest concern.
I am very optimistic about -- about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You're going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer.
You're going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government. I spent -- I've been there 17 times now. I go about every two months -- three months. I know every one of the major players in all the segments of that society.
It's impressed me. I've been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences.
KING: Iran, nuclear.
Worry?
BIDEN: A concern. A -- a -- a real concern, not an immediate concern in the sense that something could happen tomorrow or in the very near term, but what I worry most about with regard to Iran, if they continue on the path of nuclear weapons and were able to gain even a modicum of the capability, then I worry what that does -- Larry, you know the Middle East, what that -- what pressure that puts on Saudi Arabia, on Egypt, on Turkey, etc. To acquire nuclear weapons. That's...
KING: (INAUDIBLE).
BIDEN: That's very destabilizing.
SNIP
Biden doesn't finish his thought on whether the administration will be able to prevent terror attacks on the U.S. homefront, rather he stops in mid-thought and then talks about how "impressed" he is with the job the administration is doing.
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Unfreaking real.
Taking credit for one thing GWB was able to get right.
