They may have attacks ready for many cities, (truck bombs?) and figure at least a couple will come off.
Having Osama on TV is for the dumb ass muslim demographic.
They would have to get the trucks, fertilizer, oil and blasting caps.
Tim McVeigh made that very hard to come by and 911 made the money even harder to come by. Al Qaida made transfers into the US as needed for 911. They got the money for the tickets and travel just days before the attack. That means Al Qaida did not have large funds stashed here. If they bucks were here, they would not have risked transfering the funds. Transfering now is very hard.
Why did they train the Chicago Spanish Muslim and then send him back? I figure he was trained be the bag man for money. They won't be looking for a Hispanic tobe receiving Al Qaida money.. They reasoned. I would be he came back to the US trained in how to go from city to city with fake Ids to receive transfers of the money to do terrorist stuff. We picked him up, held him incognito while we collected all the money Al Qaida sent. Then and only then we went public with him so they would know their money was in our hands. We also have some nice ears into what they are doing. Bet the story on how we got on to him is false.
For all of their history, Al Qaida has worked on a very tight budget. They have not been able to get the money in it takes to do stuff... even truck bombs.
Truck rental guys might rent you a truck for cash or even sell them one, but bankers that deal in international money transfers are not going to transfer money with out US governement approval. Al Qaida may have some people here but they are now at the point where they have to work for a living.