Smaller-Scale Terrorism Plots Pose New and Worrisome Threats, Officials Say

Photo: Al-Qaeda sleeper agent Ali al-Marri. Photo AFP

From New York Times:

WASHINGTON — After disrupting two recent terrorism plots, American intelligence officials are increasingly concerned that extremist groups in Pakistan linked to Al Qaeda are planning smaller operations in the United States that are harder to detect but more likely to succeed than the spectacular attacks they once emphasized, senior counterterrorism officials say.

The two cases — one involving two Chicago men accused this week of planning an attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the prophet Mohammad, the other a 24-year-old Denver shuttle bus driver indicted in a plot to use improvised explosives — are among the most serious in years, the officials said.

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My Comment: All that you would need is a small cell of a few terrorists (3-5 men), experts in explosives, a small but not significant amount of cash (a few hundred thousand dollars), and the willingness to explode a car bomb in an American city every few days.

Such a terrorism strike will paralyze America's major cities, and produce a media circus that will preempt all other news and government priorities .... in short .... it will paralyze the country.

Thank God our police forces and intelligence agencies have been successful in stopping the more determined members of these groups .... but the fear is real .... and the realization that it will only be a matter of time before such a terror action does occur on U.S. soil can only give us cold comfort that for the moment we are only playing for time.