Al-Qaeda could bring down a US flight 'tomorrow' former CIA man Michael Morell warns, outlining threat of attack on US soil

Michael Morell, the former deputy director of the intelligence agency, made his claims in his book The Great War of Our Time

Former Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell outlines the attacks he believes al-Qaeda are capable of (Getty Images )

The former deputy chief of the CIA has said “would not be surprised” if Al-Qaeda succeeded in carrying out a terrorist attack on a flight between the UK and the United States “tomorrow,” he warned in a new book.

Morell, who was instrumental in the US’s response to the 9/11 attacks, has outlined his beliefs that the terrorist group has the capabilities to carry out such an attack that would leave hundreds of people dead, or one that would see radicals carry out attacks on the ground in the US.

“To put it bluntly, I would not be surprised if al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) tomorrow brought down a US airliner travelling from London to New York or from New York to Los Angeles or anywhere else in the United States,” he wrote in his new book, The Great War of Our Time, The Telegraph reports.

Before he left the CIA after a 33-year career, Morell became the spy agency’s acting director for the second time after David Petraeus handed in his resignation following the discovery of his affair with his biographer. His time at the agency had seen him with President Bush when the news of the attacks on the World Trade Centers was broken, and with President Obama when the news was relayed that Osama bin Laden had been killed, USA Today reports.

Morell said he is deeply concerned that US “is going to get hit in the homeland again” and believes there is a significant chance that an Isis-inspired attack could happen at any point.

Speaking to Politico, Morell repeated his warning that al-Qaeda in Yemen could “bring down an airliner,” adding: “If we don’t keep pressure on the terrorists, they are going to rebound until they’re able to conduct another 9/11-style attack.”

One of the reasons he wrote the book, Morell said, “is that I wanted American people to know that”.

Morell told the magazine the two attacks he worried about the most is an “AQAP attack that is significant in that it kills hundreds of people,” with the most likely scenario being a specialised explosive that would bring down an airliner in the US; and a directed attack on US soil by Isis, al Nusra, al Qaeda in Pakistan, AQAP, or al Qaeda in Yemen that would see a terrorist group “get 10 or 15 guys and send them into malls on a Saturday with single weapons and have them kill 10 or 20 or 25 people.”