Al Qaeda planning attack on US from Pakistan, says US President Barack Obama

US President Barack Obama said on April 1 that Al Qaeda was planning to attack the US mainland from Pakistani soil and added that the US would chase and defeat the terror organisation wherever it was present in the world. Addressing a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Obama said the US policy was clear for both Pakistan and Afghanistan, while Afghanistan would not be allowed to become a safe haven for a -Qaeda. In America, counter-terror officials are reportedly warning Police of a threat made by the Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud to attack the US. In response, federal authorities advised Police and other law enforcement officials that Mehsud’s threat was an aspiration rather than evidence of an imminent or specific threat against the United States. FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Mehsud has made similar threats in the past and has no record of striking targets abroad, although he is suspected of being behind a 10-man cell arrested in Barcelona in January 2008 for plotting suicide attacks in Spain.