Here’s how the next attacks will come. They will be by Islamic men from various countries who will have established a strong relationship among themselves overseas. They will have trained as members of a cell. They will have in each cell at least one man taught in the use of explosives, one man who speaks English, and men who are not Arabs. Each man with a specialty will have a back-up person known to the others. They will know like Timothy McVeigh or Tamerlan Tsarnaev how to easily acquire material that can be used as explosives.
They will be, or already have been, put into the United States over our porous borders. If all of one cell does not make it then an alternative will be sent in. No cells will use electronic communications nor will any cell communicate with each other. Once several cells are established near major cities a mechanism will have been established known only to the cell leader or his alternative for keeping in touch with his home contact. Each home contact will have responsibility for one cell and would set up a unique way of communicating with it. The home contact would be in contact with the headquarters group.
Most of these men will not be suicide bombers but in a cell there may be one or two. The majority will be trained in the art of placing a bomb in a crowded place and fleeing immediately from the area to pre-established safe houses. All the video cameras which may show their activities will be useless since they will be disguised and not known to members of the public.
Each team after the first attack will lie low for a month or so until the signal for a second round. The first attack by a cell will be the signal for the next cell to attack. That will happen two or three days later in another part of the country making the authorities think it is the same group as did the first attack. Then another day or two before the third cell goes into action. Each cell in a different part of the country will follow-up based on a pre-determined schedule. It will be beyond the imagination of our “terrorist experts” that these are all separate cells; they will believe it is one group dashing about the country.
Do you recall the response of Boston to the chase of the Marathon Bombers? All the people of Boston and adjacent cities were told to “shelter-in.” Imagine two weeks of deadly bombing attacks and all the attackers still on the loose. Can you imagine what will happen in the United States when the president tells everyone to “shelter-in?” Can’t you see the round-up of all the usual Muslims suspects, the frenzy questioning of people who know nothing, the official panic, the confused FBI, and the great fear spreading through and disabling America?
This is what will happen. Bombs will be set off in theaters, public transportation, schools, colleges and public gatherings. These cannot be guarded against. We have been told it is to happen. The foreign Muslim jihadi have said over and over again they want to bring war to America.
If after these nation-crippling attacks were we to catch the members of one or two cells, what will we do with them? Will we bring them into federal court, give them lengthy trials to show the strength of our judicial system, and if convicted, will we hear pleas to spare their lives as we hear now with the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?
Time will tell. No one can be lucky forever; not even our country.
Matt: I think the danger of this kind of attack will diminish as we withdraw from the Mideast. As a result, I’m good with Obama’s plan to get all of our troops home. Off topic: The scene depicted in the Whitey Bulger movie trailer is more or less ripped
off from a memorable scene in “Goodfellas.” Hope the rest of the movie isn’t this derivative.
Dan:
The less we have to do with the Middle East the better off all of us will be.
I read a little comment in the Globe about the movie trailer and hope to do a post on it soon. You have to keep in mind it is a movie and not a documentary so if parts of Goodfellas can be copied then that will be done.
What is really scary is our devalued public school system. We need smarter (happier) generations who are focused on the betterment of themselves, mankind, and the earth. When we work towards that, this type of fear-mongering dribble will diminish.
mikey–how liberal of you
“It means, it means, teaching troubled children through your present that there’s no such, that there’s such a thing as reliable love. Some would say it’s soft and insufficiently tough to care about these things. But where is it written that we must act as if we do not care, as if we are not moved? Well I am moved. I want a kinder, and gentler nation.”
Speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention (18 August 1988)
G. H. W. Bush
Henry:
Good comment. So that’s what the old man taught his kids that we should make America kinder and gentler; and, when IS comes knocking do you think they will be impressed with our gentleness?
Farn:
Yes, it was nice of him don’t you think.
Michael:
I worked in a case in 1972 based on the need for better educational opportunity in the public schools for kids. For over 40 years we’ve been trying to turn aout “smarter (happier) generations” but the end result is stupider and disgruntled people. Perhaps we need more dribble and less dabble.
The Atlantic speculated on this in 2005.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/01/ten-years-later/303659/
An equally frightening read that did not come true. If it makes such sense, is so easy to pull off and would be so destructive to our country, why hasn’t it happened yet?
The “shelter in place” policy, expecting only those who dare to move about to be terrorists, makes as much sense as the “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” policy of “run away!’ when killer rabbits are encountered:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FPELc1wEvk
The paralysis of our society, disruption and ultimately, breakdown, is the objective. The “shelter in place” in reaction to multiple terrorist events may be the means. Expect much ineffective security Kabuki theater in response.
For the guys behind the guys behind the guys.. Assuming they are thoughtful..When a major terrorist strike is successful by definition what then occurs in response is what the objective of the attack was. 911 occurs and we go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Killing tens of thousands of Jihaddists. The guys behind the guys behind the guys in the classifieds Saudi annex of the 911 report were apparently wealthy Saudis. Dead Jihaddists help ensure the survival of the Saudi elites. Strategic objectives matter.
Frightening post, Matt, as what you describe seems plausible. What, if anything, do you think our government should do to mitigate this type of planned attack?
Well said. This is the tactical arm of the threat. But the key is to try to get into the strategic objectives. The guy behind the guy behind the guy. To better understand the objectives. The tactical guys fight for the your in our territory killing us but the strategic guys have deeper purpose.