A top German intelligence official warns that Al Qaeda is feeling pressure for another big strike against the West: Al Qaeda Under Pressure for New Strike -Spy Chief.

“A substantial decline in activities in the next couple of years is highly improbable,” Rudolf Adam, deputy head of German’s BND foreign intelligence agency, told a security conference in Berlin.

“On the contrary, we would feel that pressure is mounting on al Qaeda to reassert its effectiveness and its ability to strike another really big high-value target” in order to remain visible, he said. …

Adam said air transport remained a potential target, adding: “The next threat that we observe with great concern is the possibilities of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, so called MANPADs.” …

Adam said shipping, tourist sites and supply infrastructure such as oil pipelines, power stations, electricity grids and water supplies remained potentially at risk.

“We have unspecified hints that plans have been made or are still under way to target the chemical industry and chemical infrastructure,” he said, without giving details.

Adam also said there was concern that al Qaeda might consider kidnappings — a tactic it has not previously used — as a bargaining chip to seek the release of prominent members captured during the U.S.-led war on terror.

“We have some disturbing evidence that kidnappings have been planned,” he said.