Homeland Defense Journal - January 2009 - 10

C OV E R S T O RY By Adam Fosson A Transitional threat assessment to a U.S. State Department report released in April 2008, al-Qaida is operating at its pre-9/11 level after having reconstituted itself amidst the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. According IN ADDITION TO CONTINUED warfare against American and allied military personnel in the Middle East, al-Qaida clearly intends to strike again inside of the U.S. and other Western nations. On November 19, shortly after the Presidential election, Ayman alZawahiri, a key personage in al-Qaida’s leadership, brushed aside the idea that the election of Barack Obama would signify any change in strategy: “America, the criminal, trespassing Crusader, continues to be the same as ever, so we must continue to harm it, in order for it to come to its senses, because its criminal, expansionist Crusader project in your lands has only been neutralized by the sacriﬁces of your sons, the Mujahedeen. This, then, is the path, so stick to it.” As we have recently witnessed in the attacks on Mumbai, al-Qaida and its allies seek to multiply the political and social impact of their violence by rendering it a spectacle. While audiences around the world have dulled to the horror of suicide bombings, the attention given to even more 8 | Homeland Defense Journal Visit www.homelanddefensejournal.com

Homeland Defense Journal - January 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Homeland Defense Journal - January 2009