By Dion Nissenbaum and Colleen McCain Nelson
WASHINGTON--Attorney General Eric Holder said on Sunday the U.S.
and its allies are working to determine if al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula played a direct role in orchestrating last week's attacks
in Paris before deciding whether to retaliate against the militants
in the Middle East.
Speaking from Paris, where he was attending an emergency
security conference, Mr. Holder said U.S. and Western intelligence
officials have yet to establish a clear link between the attacks
and the Yemen affiliate of al Qaeda.
"We'll certainly have to see exactly who was responsible,
determine what kind of retaliation would be appropriate," Mr.
Holder said on "This Week" on ABC. "Bringing people to justice who
are responsible for these acts is certainly something that we would
work together with our French counterparts."
In a series of interviews with the U.S. Sunday morning talk
shows, Mr. Holder said the U.S. has all-but eliminated al Qaeda's
ability to carry out spectacular attacks in the U.S., and that the
fight against terrorism has shifted to a new phase of smaller
attacks such as that last week in Paris.
"I think the decimation of core al Qaeda has probably reduced,
if not eliminated, their ability to do the kinds of things they did
on Sept. 11," 2001, Mr. Holder said on CBS. "On the other hand, al
Qaeda affiliates like al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have moved
what they do to smaller kinds of attacks."
Mr. Holder spoke as upward of a million people flooded the
streets of Paris for a mass antiterrorism rally. The series of
attacks by three radicalized Frenchmen killed 17 people over three
days. The perpetrators were killed in two separate police raids on
Friday.
Before he was killed, one attacker, Cherif Kouachi, told a
French television reporter that their attack on the country's
Charlie Hebdo newspaper was backed by al Qaeda in Yemen and Anwar
al-Awlaki, the American-born imam who was killed in a U.S. drone
strike in 2011.
Some media organizations have reported claims of responsibility
from AQAP. The group has broadcast a video with a top official
praising the attack, but he didn't take credit or clarify the
group's relationship with the French attackers.
Mike Morell, a former deputy director of the Central
Intelligence Agency, said Sunday the claim AQAP somehow directed
the attack should be taken seriously. "We don't know what direction
means," he said on CBS. But "I do think al Qaeda was, in part,
responsible for this."
Mr. Holder said the U.S. is still trying to determine what role
al Qaeda played in the attacks.
In his interviews on Sunday, Mr. Holder said AQAP remains the
most dangerous of the al Qaeda affiliates. He said there is no
specific credible threat to the U.S. Rather, what he called the
entire threat environment is as dangerous as anything since the
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
"We are at war with those who would commit terrorist attacks and
who would corrupt the Islamic faith in the way that they do to try
to justify their terrorist actions," Mr. Holder said.
U.S. officials are continually evaluating emerging threats,
tracking the movements of individuals who may be affiliated with
terrorist groups, Mr. Holder said, but it is very difficult to keep
track of every person who potentially could carry out an
attack.
"That is the thing, I think, that keeps me up most at
night--this concern about the lone wolf who goes undetected," Mr.
Holder said on NBC.
Write to Dion Nissenbaum at dion.nissenbaum@wsj.com and Colleen
McCain Nelson at colleen.nelson@wsj.com
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