Wednesday, September 6 2006 11:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Claiming progress in the war on terror due to allies like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the US said the enemy it faces yesterday (Sept 5, 2006) is much "degraded" and that there are no new plans to raise the current threat level.

"The US and our partners continue to pursue a significantly degraded but still dangerous al Qaeda network," the White House said releasing an updated anti-terror strategy.

"We've enjoyed a good number of successes. Three-quarters of Al Qaida's leadership from 9/11 has either been captured or killed. We've disrupted and destroyed their ability to move money, to travel. And we've strengthened our allies and partnerships around the world with countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan so that we are winning this war," he said.

"Yet the enemy we face today in the war on terror is not the same enemy we faced on Septemeber 11. Our effective counter-terrorism efforts in part have forced the terrorists to evolve and modify their ways of doing business," the 23-page terror strategy update said.

The update followed the release of a new al Qaeda video over the weekend which raised concerns about the possibility of another terror attack. The tape featured an American calling on fellow citizens, especially soldiers to convert to Islam.



This has been taken in some quarters to mean an impending attack, especially since the tape surfaced only days before the US observes the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. "No, we're not we've seen tapes before. We've seen these sorts of releases right near the anniversary of September 11th. We think this is just another one of those. We take them all seriously, but there are no current plans to raise the threat level," senior White House official for Homeland Security Frances Fragos Townsend said.

"We've seen Adam Gadahn on videotape releases from Al Qaida before. Just before the 2004 elections, Gadahn had a very chilling, very graphic videotape that was released then on behalf of Al Qaida. This is another one of those" Townsend remarked but conceding that there is 'some concern' based on the call to convert.

"We understand that bin Laden has been criticized within the Muslim world for not having offered people to convert before attacking us in the past. And so, we do take every release and every statement very seriously," she added.

The update on terror also admitted continuing challenges, saying while the US has substantially improved air, land, sea and border security, it is not immune from attack.

It noted that one problem had to do with an increasingly sophisticated use of internet and media by terrorists and would-be terrorists.

It said that terrorism is not simply a result of hostility to US policy in Iraq.

"The US was attacked on September 11 and many years earlier, well before we toppled the Saddam Hussein regime," adding countries that did not participate in the coalition efforts in Iraq have not been spared from terror attacks.

Townsend also brushed aside criticism coming from Democrats on the President's tackling of issues such as terrorism and Iraq.