Item 1: Far from being crippled by the U.S.-led war on terror, al-Qaida has more than 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world and the war in Iraq is swelling its ranks, a report said Tuesday.
Item 2: The Energy Department is creating a $450 million program to collect, secure and dispose of used reactor fuel and other materials from around the world that could be used by terrorists in “dirty bombs” for spreading radiation over several city blocks.
Item 3: U.S. officials have obtained new intelligence deemed highly credible indicating al-Qaida or other terrorists are in the United States and preparing to launch a major attack this summer, The Associated Press has learned.
Considering that the last two high profile terrorist plots that were successfully intercepted (the millennium bomb plot and shoe bomber Richard Reid) were foiled mainly by luck – you should be worried….
Update: Michele Catalano has much more in this topic.
Wonder how many pounds of Anthrax you could smuggle in the millions of pounds of cocain that makes it into the United States anually?
These foreign terrorists are more dangerous than most people know because there are reports that they have teamed up on occasion with our own homegrown terrorists in the Christian Identity/Sovereign Citizen white supremacist movement in their efforts to destroy America.
Apparently, 18,000 terrorists is a decrease in overall numbers of the enemy, not an increase.
While I’m no expert, I’ve got my doubts about the IISS’s methodology for coming up with the 18,000 number:
20,000 (approximately) trained in Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan
– 2,000 caught or killed since 9/11/2001
18,000 remaining
Seems a little simplistic to me.