SINISTER INTENT

Al-Qaeda is not a monolithic organization, true, but it appears that it is becoming restless; or at the very least the sum of its parts may be.  Nothing spectacular to rock the foundation of western placidity has occurred of late.  Atrocities have occurred and continue to take place but they are successful in places that are not as guarded against their potential, as the West happens to be. 

Alert authorities have been too successful in awareness of what may be occurring, arresting plans to enact further atrocities.  Possibly just as much by happy coincidence as by design.  Whatever the reasons, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is where that terrorist organization appears currently to be most active under the umbrella signature, is hoping to produce another spectacular hit on the West.

And where else more practical to aim than where great crowds of people representing the European community will be gathering in the near future, than in London?  The Olympics are nigh.  And in targeting the possibility of an American airliner there are echoes of 9/11, and the neat arrangement of hitting both the United States and Europe at the very same time.  An accomplishment with much obvious meaning.

Paradoxically enough, a recruit from a European country that considers itself rational, humane and accommodating to its huge Muslim demographic has spawned native Norwegians who convert to Islam in direct opposition to a Norwegian claiming his loathing of his country being engulfed by Muslims required him to murder 77 Norwegians.

But there it is, AQAP has at least one Norwegian convert trained at a camp in Yemen who is being groomed to help commit a violent act of terrorism that will have the result of a worldwide intake of breath after the horror of another successful attack.  Forewarned is forearmed, to a certain degree.  But without precise knowledge what, exactly, can be done?

American and British intelligence agencies have initial information that leads them to understand Al-Qaeda finds the lure of Westerners converting to Islam and being radicalized into violent jihad most attractive.  The negativity (for Muslims) of racial profiling which has security authorities focusing on the potential of swarthy, Eastern-appearing young men posing as violent threats would be entirely nullified with Western-appearing young men being groomed to take their place.

When a Nigerian youth with a posh British accent whose father had high-level connections and diplomatic status was tasked with blowing up a U.S. passenger jet, it was mostly serendipity that the plot was revealed because the incendiary device in his underwear failed to ignite as it was planned to do.  And when it comes to ingenuity no one can really fault terrorists who thought to use innocent-appearing printer cartridges as explosive devices aboard passenger aircraft.

"There is terrorist plotting going on irrespective of the Olympics.  The only thing that connects this to the Olympics is the fact that they are about to happen", according to an official at Whitehall.  "If you are blowing up airplanes you are likely to be killing Brits or having a big impact on the European or British economy.  (So it) would in effect be an attack against Britain".

This new intelligence appears to dovetail nicely with a speech given by Jonathan Evans, head of MI5, highlighting concerns over the increasing emergence of homegrown, radicalized Muslims training in camps in Yemen, Somalia and the African Sahel.  The success in destabilizing training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan has simply moved them elsewhere.

Additional details of the detected plot to attempt an explosion aboard an American plane are being withheld, but will be produced in great detail should success be realized.