The Second Wave of Al Qaeda

The following is excerpted from John Gibson's June 3, 2005 interview with Dr. Walid Phares, senior fellow with The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies:

"...Al Qaeda, in general terms, has shown the first wave with the 9/11 attacks, the bombers that came from overseas trying to bring down targets in the United States. What we see right now is the beginning of what I call already and many of my colleagues call second wave, meaning U.S. citizens who have not shown in the past a signal that they were part of any radical movement or show, and very well integrated in their societies. I think this is the most important thing. They protect themselves with the society, with the fact that they are good citizens and have not shown any sign before. The terrorist strategy, Al Qaeda, the jihadist strategy and it's on Internet -- it's not so difficult to find it -- is to find people who actually will be patient enough not to get involved in a variety of activities, get the education, do the connections, travel, meet with Al Qaeda, but then will trigger one-time mission. These are long-term terrorists...the second wave.They could be either Arab-American, Muslim American, converts allied to the jihadists....[T]hey are people who fit perfectly the normal U.S. citizen, meaning they send their kids to school. They do have probably arguments with their neighbors, but they're good neighbors, meaning not somebody who would come to Florida or New York and hide and then suddenly strike. These are people who are known in their society, in their communities."

The events of 9/11 were well-coordinated attacks, with clear ties to terrorist movements in the Middle East. If Dr. Phares is correct, however, the next series of attacks will come from within our own borders and will be perpetrated by "good citizens." (Why does that phrase ring familiar? Could it be because it is the mantra of CAIR and of various leftist organizations?)

It is way past time to deal with American Islamist organizations, particularly mosques, Saudi-owned schools, and centers for Islamic studies. These places are hotbeds of Islamist rhetoric and activism, and should not be allowed to operate under the protection of American freedoms. The recent arrests in California and in Florida are likely just a small inroad into the anarchism which is afoot, and law enforcement, particularly the Department of Homeland Security, needs to have at its disposal all possible anti-terrorism tools, including the Patriot Act, now under bipartisan attack within our Congress.

Remember our vigilance as individual citizens in the months following 9/11? How many attacks did our vigilance prevent? Where is that vigilance now? As our Founding Fathers warned, maintaining freedom requires constant vigilance. This period of relative calm could well be masking the gathering of more attacks.