Terrorists are planning a series of spectacular attacks on American, British and Israeli targets to coincide with the anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Centre on 11 September. Intelligence agencies in the UK, South Asia and the Middle East are detecting an increased volume of communications between suspected al-Qaeda cells as the organisation accelerates efforts to pull off a major operation in the days around the anniversary of the New York and Washington attacks.
Before they're completely extinct...
According to sources in Pakistan, Al-Qaida activists there have been given a three-month deadline to work with associates from local hardline Islamist organisations to target Western interests in the region. 'The threat remains high and the background noise has been growing over recent weeks. It's a question of when, rather than if, they will attempt another spectacular,' said one Whitehall source.
It doesn't take much in the way of resources to mount an attack — we'll never be completely free of the threat of terrorism until all al-Qaeda members, Hamas, al-Aqsa, Muslim Brotherhood and other "mujaheddin" are either dead or under lock and key. And we'll always have to be vigilant, keeping an eye out for goobers hollering "Jihad!" But if they were going to fight a war, and had the resources to do it, they'd have followed up the 9-11 attacks within a week, 30 days at the outside, with something of close to the same magnitude. That's why I don't think the anthrax attacks were a domestic job, or if they were that the perpetrators were in cahoots with al-Qaeda. When that went bust, they had to come up with something else, but they were busy being daisy cut and executing each other at Konduz, so that's when they lost. We're going to see pinpricks like the El Al counter getting shot up, but I think we're seeing bluster now, and barracks bragging and wishful thinking. If the Paks don't slack off in NWFP, we may even see Binny's corpse on display soon.
There, I've said it, so that means they'll probably make a liar out of me, because there's not any certainty to be had. In the movies, every time the guy says "We're safe now, Myra," the monster comes crashing through the window/wall/ceiling/floor. But I'll be surprised if they do bring off something important. |