“European and American officials said Wednesday that they had detected a variety of credible threats from terrorist groups in Pakistan and northern Africa targeting European capitals, but said they did not consider an attack imminent and described the plots as largely aspirational.
American intelligence and counterterrorism officials said they had gathered intelligence pointing to a series of suspected Qaeda-linked plans to attack ‘soft targets’ in Britain, France and Germany. The Central Intelligence Agency has this month carried out a record number of drone strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan, partly to disrupt communications and target insurgents suspected of involvement in planning those attacks, the officials said. “
(Europeans Play Down Reports of New Qaeda Threats – NYTimes.com)