National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell warned a Senate panel on Tuesday that al Qaeda is gaining strength at the Pakistani border, with an increasing number of new recruits, which poses a serious threat to the United States security. According to McConnell, the terrorist group is preparing to strike in several countries around the world, including Afghanistan.

“Al Qaeda is improving the last key aspect of its ability to attack the U.S.: the identification, training and positioning of operatives for an attack on the homeland,” McConnell said to the Senate. “In the last year, the number of terrorist attacks and deaths were greater than the past six years combined. What’s happened in Pakistan has now recognized that this is an existential threat to their very survival.”

Osama bin Laden and his deputy in charge, Ayman al-Zawahri, are reportedly preparing a new generation of lieutenants, and what’s even worse is that among them there are western recruits, perfectly capable of blending into the American society and prepare a surprise attack, endangering especially domestic targets.

The raising concerns came one year after al Qaeda was declared to be resurgent and the United States concentrated on the war in Iraq more than even, leaving aside the possibility that al Qaeda might prepare a come back. The Democrats have been highly criticizing the White House for its polity since 2002.

On the same occasion, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden publicly admitted for the first time to the waterboarding technique used on three al Qaeda detainees in 2002 and 2003 during interrogations. The technique simulated drowning and according to Hayden, the information obtained accounted for a quarter of what CIA managed to find out about al Qaeda between 2002 and 2006.

Robert S. Muller III, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate the CIA techniques were not an imperative, and information could be obtained through other methods as well. The CIA is the only agency allowed to use more harsh interrogation methods, even more aggressive than used by the military.