I don't know if I buy this. Lots of folks in government are going around pounding their chests and saying "see, we've got 'em on the run because we haven't been hit since 9/11".
One thing a lot of folks seem to forget is the plot that lead to 9/11 was YEARS in the making. Our enemy is patient and willing to wait until the time is right and I think that is exactly what is happening now.
Exactly correct Thermalseeker.
The reporter is claiming he has information that indicates that the planning for this attack has been a decade (10 years) in the planning.
So yes, before Y2k...
There is no doubt in my mind that if they had the suit case nukes they would have used them by now....
unfortunately you are correct sir
The terrorists are far less patient now. They can't afford to be patient when their operations get shut down on a regular basis. They have to be operating under the assumption that if they don't use it they're going to lose it. So if they haven't used it yet, they either don't have it or they're waiting for a better time than all the opportunities they've already let slip past.
The terrorists could easily bomb a South American country, a European city, or an Asian city, more easily than bomb an American city.
9/11 altered everything for them. They expected America to be weak. They expected us to get on with our lives, apologize for offending them, launch a few missiles at some empty tempts, and forget. They didn't expect the clamp down on terrorists and their activities, or the invasion of Afghanistan, and certainly not the invasion of Iraq. They lost the advantage of the being the aggressor when they made the incorrect assumption that because America is an infidel nation that we are therefore weak. Electing Clinton twice ensured that the terrorists would think we were weak enough to decapitate with the attacks on 9/11. Who would elect a weak willed, opportunist, immoral sex junky twice to the White House, and then applaud him? The liberal media ensured that the terrorist perception of America was one of amoral, pleasure junkies.
If there is one man on the planet the terrorists hate the most, it is President Bush. If they could get at him they would, because it would be difficult, and it would gain them much respect in their circles and with Muslims around the world. Of course, the Muslims would find out what a nice man our President really is when they meet his successor... Cheney.
There is possibly only one reason that would hold back the terrorists form using nuclear weapons in the United States, and that is a glimmer of rationality. A nuke in any American city would result in the demolition of most of the Middle East power structure. It would mean a full mobilization of the United States, up to and including a draft. The invasion of Syria and Iran. It would mean the end of fundamentalist power.
If they're rational enough to realize that, if they do possess nuclear weapons, then they're rational enough to realize that holding their own populations hostage would be more effective of stilling our hand than attacking us or attempting to hold our populations hostage.