Washington: A controversial US wiretapping law can help track down Al-Qaeda suspects trained in "safe haven" Pakistan and sent to attack the United States, the US intelligence chief said today.

"When I mention Al-Qaeda...they have a place to operate de facto safe haven in Pakistan. They have leadership. They have middle level lieutenants," Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence, told CNN television network.

"What they re attempting to do is to recruit those that can be trained and then infiltrated into this country. Those are the very people that we re attempting to track down," he said.

McConnell spoke amid intense debate in the House of Representatives over a high-profile eavesdropping and intelligence legislation that provides immunity provisions for telecom companies helping in eavesdropping without warrants.

The Senate has already passed the legislation broadening the government s spying powers which US President George W Bush said was critical to ensure national security in the fight against Islamist extremists.

McConnell said Washington was working closely with Pakistan to "try to eliminate the problem there in the de facto safe haven areas.

"However, those that have been trained, that have been repositioned in Europe or wherever, those are the ones we have to identify and prevent from getting into this country," he said.

The United States has been "quite successful" in preventing their entry "because of some of the tools and techniques" currently in use, he said.

Source : PTI