# How will Al Quaida attack the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 6, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976 "2011-05-06T16:37:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/21 "2011-05-06T19:47:23Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > Why do Americans keep writing Queda? It is incorrect. It is Qaeda. Actually it a bunch of letters that most of us cannot read; written out it is القاعدة‎ It is transliterated (or “Romanized”) for Western consumption. “Qaeda” is no more correct than are several other transliterations: al-qaa’idah, al-Qaida, al-Qa’ida, sometimes capitalizing the first letter and sometimes not, and others. The news agencies have taken to accepting al-Qaeda as the standard, but to call that _the_ official correct transliteration is incorrect. It is just the most popular transliteration. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/22 "2011-05-06T19:54:23Z")
> [@pohjonen](#): > > Osama was very clear that his plan was to make us spend ourselves into [bankruptcy](http://articles.cnn.com/2004-11-01/world/binladen.tape_1_al-jazeera-qaeda-bin?_s=PM:WORLD). He really shouldn’t have bothered. We can do that well enough on our own without his help. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/23 "2011-05-06T20:09:31Z")
They’ll allow their leader to be killed, leading to heated arguments over who deserves the most credit, leading to civil war and eventual dissolution of the country. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/24 "2011-05-06T20:35:34Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > The threats have already started surfacing. From a situational awareness report circulating within the Federal Government, we learn that a series of “white powder letters” have been received at several District of Columbia schools beginning at approximately 11:50 May 5th through this morning. > > The letters are mailed from Dallas, Texas and contain a letter with the words AL AQEDA-FBI and white powder. Thus far, 38 letters from Dallas, Texas have been received or intercepted at schools and postal facilities in the District. > > Unfortunately the PDF has “official use only” stamped on it, so I can’t release that or quote directly from it. Doesn’t Dubya live in Dallas? ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/25 "2011-05-06T20:44:13Z")
AQ doesn’t have a lot of operational ability on the ground in the US. I haven’t been impressed by any of the ‘plots’ announced, but one thing did give me pause; the guys who had cell phones taped to various items and tried to send them through in their luggage. AQ favors the cell phone as a detonator. The rest of the plots were just about laughable; a lot of them involved an FBI informant trying to cut a deal, a bunch of losers, and no real possibility of anything other than unintentional comedy. The Times Square bomber didn’t have his ‘bomb’ connected or put together. He didn’t even unscrew the tops of the gas can. I guess they need a remedial bombing course at AQ HQ. ``` AQ wants a lot of bang for their buck, and their ultimate, long range goal is eclipsing the death toll of 9/11. They want a large scale catastrophe. ``` IF they had the ability, they’d have done it, unless it’s truly huge. Our security in general sucks. I can see some kind of Mumbai scenario playing out because guns are easy to get, but our cops are way better trained than the MUmbai police were. If they had any capability, I’d expect to see an IRA-style bombing campaign here and there, unless they’re running out of money, staff, or explosives. Let’s face it, suicide bombers are kind of a finite resource. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/26 "2011-05-06T20:51:41Z")
I don’t know if they already lost their mojo before binny bin bin was killed. Wasn’t their last attempts the shoe bomb and underwear bomb? Perhaps those were decoys while they were planning something larger? Still, I don’t see how al-Queda can be prepared for any type of swift retaliation. I doubt it will be any time soon, if at all. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/27 "2011-05-06T21:22:41Z")
> [@contradancer](#): > > A few years ago we would have taken the word of the President of the United States; A few years ago? Try 40+ years – a few decades! I stopped believing uncritically about the time Nixon claimed we were NOT bombing Cambodia, while my cousin in the service was sending back letters about his activities “west of the border”. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/28 "2011-05-07T00:57:30Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > He really shouldn’t have bothered. We can do that well enough on our own without his help. Yes, things are exactly as they were before 9/11. Apart from the two wars, doubling the defense budget, a new Homeland Security department, “a new militarized intelligence bureaucracy that “The Washington Post” described as an additional 1,271 government organizations, 1,931 private companies and an estimated 854,000 people holding top secret security clearances,” not to mention all the extra TSA security and probably a whole lot more stuff I’m not even considering. How silly of me. Osama had no effect at all I guess. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/29 "2011-05-07T02:55:47Z")
I’m going with the Tom Clancy approach here. He predicted 9/11 in 1994 (in “Debt of Honor” - a pilot crashes a jumbo jet into the Capitol Building) and he predicted Osama’s style of hideout just last year. See here: > **[The Daily Beast](https://www.thedailybeast.com/)** > > A smart, speedy take on breaking news and opinion in politics, media, entertainment, and more. So in “Teeth of the Tiger” Clancy predicted small scale strikes at various locations. Basically just a few dozen gunmen across the US shooting up shopping malls. This pattern continues in “Dead or Alive” with the terrorists striking simultaneously with a variety of methods - claymores, grenades, mortars, etc. Strikes that are relatively easy to set up (as opposed to hijacking planes) and hard to shut down before the damage is done. Strikes that happen anywhere at any time, putting the terror back in terrorism. I hope he’s wrong but if I had to predict what a wounded terrorist group would do, I’d bet it won’t be anything showy. It’ll just be plain old terrorism. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/30 "2011-05-07T03:02:20Z")
> [@pohjonen](#): > > Yes, things are exactly as they were before 9/11. Apart from the two wars, doubling the defense budget, a new Homeland Security department, “a new militarized intelligence bureaucracy that “The Washington Post” described as an additional 1,271 government organizations, 1,931 private companies and an estimated 854,000 people holding top secret security clearances,” not to mention all the extra TSA security and probably a whole lot more stuff I’m not even considering. How silly of me. Osama had no effect at all I guess. That certainly didn’t help. But our addiction to deficit spending, low taxes, and establishing programs we don’t have any idea how to pay for predates 9/11. ---
**Author:** ![humanafterall](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/humanafterall/32/19654_2.png) [@humanafterall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/humanafterall)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/31 "2011-05-07T03:10:55Z")
> [@pohjonen](#): > > Yes, things are exactly as they were before 9/11. Apart from the two wars, doubling the defense budget, a new Homeland Security department, “a new militarized intelligence bureaucracy that “The Washington Post” described as an additional 1,271 government organizations, 1,931 private companies and an estimated 854,000 people holding top secret security clearances,” not to mention all the extra TSA security and probably a whole lot more stuff I’m not even considering. How silly of me. Osama had no effect at all I guess. Yeah, I had read Washington Post’s special report titled “Top Secret America”, and it was about how there is a network of organizations that are rather redundant in their purposes. A giant money faucet had been opened after 9/11, and nobody said anything about it. Basically when we started this whole thing, we came in with an “at all costs” kind-of attitude. Victory over terror, at any price. And all of us, after 9/11, were willing to pay for it. If only we’d known what the price would have been, we might not have been so eager to pay it… ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/32 "2011-05-07T03:13:50Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Al Queda, under Bin Laden was only interested in spectacular. They didn’t care about number of deaths. If that is all they were going for they could simply get 20 suicide bombers and go to 20 malls at Christmas and the carnage, not to mention the fear of going to a mall would be enormous. > > Notice how that never happened. Because death tolls are not important as much as doing something spectacular. > > A terror attack needs to be coordinated just right, and people now are talking. Without OBL, they’ll see less reason not to spill their guts. That’s why even some of the thug hijackers didn’t know the intention of the 9-11 hijacked planes till they were actually on them. > > The less people that know the better. > > The USA is hard to hit as it’s far from the base of operations and things are being looked at closely. We could be easily hit hundreds of way, heck I can think of five off the top of my head to disrupt Chicago terribly without causing many deaths, if any. > > In many ways were all just a whim away from some guy about ready to run amok with a meat cleaver or gun. It’s scary to think what tiny thing may set that fuse off. Wrong please justify, You have no clue what OBL was thinking. His early attacks were pretty small. Cheney says he van not be connected to 911. So what did he do? ---
**Author:** ![humanafterall](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/humanafterall/32/19654_2.png) [@humanafterall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/humanafterall)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/33 "2011-05-07T03:25:00Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Wrong please justify, You have no clue what OBL was thinking. His early attacks were pretty small. Cheney says he van not be connected to 911. So what did he do? I don’t know if I should trust a guy who shot a man that he thought looked like a bird… ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/34 "2011-05-07T03:43:54Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > The info found in OBLs home show railroads were the next targets. They wanted to derail some of them. Yeah, that will interrupt 95% of the USA’s transportation infrastructure, and we’ll be sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976/35 "2011-05-07T12:51:44Z")
"How will Al Quaida **try to** attack the US? " Would be the question. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-will-al-quaida-attack-the-us/580976.md?page=1)