Yep. There was a thread here a while back where someone had quotes from one of Bin Laden's Leiutenants laying out the Plan of Attack on the West. Destruction of the banking system/economy and airlines were the top goals.
Retailers make as much as 1/2+ of their gross sales during the holiday shopping season. I think it is prudent to expect attacks aimed at curtailing travel and shopping up through Christmas.
Perhaps the reason a terrorist attack is being downplayed is to limit the economic impact. For example, I know people who are not going to be shipping presents to relatives for the holidays. If the travel industry, holiday shopping, Fed-Ex, US Mail, all the ripple effects are counted in, a protracted recession becomes even more protracted.