In the five years since terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Americans have accepted inconvenience, sacrificed personal liberties and paid billions of dollars for a security clampdown that touches virtually every aspect of their lives.

And we're still not safe.

A close examination of the federal government's homeland security effort shows that there have been major accomplishments since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. But it also reveals how vulnerable the nation remains to catastrophe.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has placed his military on full alert, citing "regional challenges", and vowed to continue supporting the "Palestinian and Lebanese resistance more than ever".

In a speech to mark the Syrian Army national day, Mr Assad said the volatile situation across the Middle East required "vigilance, preparation and readiness" and ordered all units of the armed forces to be on alert.

The comments were interpreted by Israel as a morale booster to the Syrian armed forces and not a call to battle. Israeli intelligence chiefs have assessed that Syria is not in the mood for an open war and is instead content to resupply Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said his group reserved the right to fight the United States on its land and warned Washington and the world community against sending forces to Somalia, according to an Internet audio tape.

"We will fight its (U.S.) soldiers on the land of Somalia ... and we reserve the right to punish it on its land and anywhere possible," said the speaker, who sounded like the Saudi-born militant.

"We warn all of the countries in the world not to respond to America by sending international troops to Somalia," he said of the African nation where Islamists' power is rising.

In recent weeks, media reports from both Iraq and Afghanistan have suggested the appearance of a slow evolution of the Islamist insurgents' tactics in the direction of the battlefield deployment of larger mujahideen units that attack "harder" facilities.

These attacks are not replacing small-unit attacks, ambushes, kidnappings, assassinations and suicide bombings in either country, but rather seem to be initial and tentative forays toward another stage of fighting.

Pakistan needs to do more to crack down on terrorism along the Pakistani-Afghan border, a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday.

Rahim Karimi said in the news conference that Afghanistan need greater "cooperation" from both its eastern neighbor and the international community in its battle against Islamic militants.

Coalition and Afghan forces have in recent days been fighting fierce battles against Taliban fighters near the Afghan-Pakistan border.

A week of unprecedented urban fighting in the wild tribal belt of North Waziristan has left scores dead and forced thousands to flee their homes, raising the stakes in Pakistan's war on Islamic militancy along the Afghan border.

A jumbled alliance of foreign militants, local tribesmen and Islamic students eager for jihad have stepped up resistance in a region where the army already claims to have wiped out al-Qaida as a viable fighting force.

The unrest, brewing for months, is a setback to the U.S.-led war on terror. Further hampering that effort are deteriorating relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan over Afghan claims that Taliban leader Mullah Omar is hiding in Pakistan and suicide bombers are training here.

He hasn't been heard from in more than a year, but one news site reports that it has obtained a new tape of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

But U.S. officials are skeptical of the report, CBS News reports.

The story from Pajhwok Afghan News, dated Tuesday, describes a new 30-minute tape with a message from Taliban commander Mullah Dodallah and the al Qaeda leader, according to the IntelCenter, a U.S. government contractor that does work for intelligence agencies.

Related:
New Bin Laden Message Soon, Says Newspaper
US rejects Qaeda claim that bin Laden still leading
New Security Realities and al-Qaeda’s Changing Tactics

Some think he is dead, others that he is hiding because he is scared of being killed.

Whatever the reason for the strange disappearance of Osama bin Laden, not seen alive since his last mocking video statement a year ago, he is no longer the face of the global "jihad" against the West.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi { TM 25,TM 27 }, the Jordanian responsible for some of the worst atrocities in Iraq, has become the hero of the hour on militant Islamist websites.

Related:
Can al-Qaeda Endure Beyond bin Laden?
Two Years Ago: Threat Matrix Begins

The United States could be attacked by "home grown" Islamist terror groups, the FBI's chief has warned.

FBI Director Robert Mueller told the London Financial Times newspaper in an interview published Thursday that the United States could face attacks from "home-grown terrorism" very similar to the July 7 bombings in London that killed 52 people and wounded another 700, Mueller said.

When asked if the United States could face such attacks from "home-grown groups", Mueller answered emphatically: "Absolutely, it could," the Financial Times said.

Related:
U.S. Officials Warn on Global Reach of al-Qaida
U.S. seeks more cooperation to fight terrorism
FDNY Chaplain Resigns After 9/11 Remarks
Nuclear option escalates jihad threat

Not long ago Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla, an authentic American hero, was shot three times and wounded in Mosul, Iraq, as he led his men into a terrorist enclave.

The jihadist who shot him survived and was given first-rate American medical care for his wounds. It turns out the terrorist was captured earlier in December 2004, on suspicion of being involved in a deadly suicide attack on an American base. Then he was turned over to the Iraqis, sent to the notorious Abu Ghraib jail and released. Once free, he returned to killing Americans and his rendezvous with Col. Kurilla.

For bickering Americans back home, Abu Ghraib is a "Stalag," but for the terrorists it's apparently a rest stop before resuming their hunt for Americans.

September 2005 - 4 Years After:
Latest FDNY Graduating Class Includes Several Sons Of 9/11 Victims
Annotated Timeline of the 9/11 Hijackers for Researchers
Kin of Sept. 11 Dead Pray for Storm Victims
9/11/04: Threat Matrix Nineteen

It's hardly a unique fashion statement for a mass transit rider: a Yankees-style cap, and a "New York" sweat shirt.

But the New York Police Department is teaming with British authorities to determine whether those items were worn by suspects in the London terror cases to send a "purposeful message" to the city, according to an NYPD officials.

David Cohen, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence, raised the concern earlier this week at a security briefing for business leaders at police headquarters in Lower Manhattan.

Related:
New assessments warn of Qaeda suicide attacks in U.S.
Still Not Ready in The ER | Cell Phone Number: ICE
Where bin Laden is, why he's still alive

Despite the massive federal, state and local law enforcement effort to stop terrorists from entering the United States, there is no strong evidence of how well it is working.

Many experts are concerned that there are plenty of terrorists or sympathizers already in the country who have been here for years. Some are even citizens.

The Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers were the first wave and now the increasing number of arrests seems to signal a second wave of terrorism in South Florida.

Related:
Court is told of 2 U.S. citizens' alleged Al Qaeda plot
Map: Islamic Terrorist Network in America (2003)

Prompted by new intelligence indicating Osama bin Laden reached out to the most feared terrorist in Iraq, President Bush charged Thursday that "al-Qaida still hopes to attack us on our own soil."

"Recently, we learned that Osama bin Laden has urged the terrorist Zarqawi to form a group to conduct attacks outside Iraq, including here in the United States," Bush said at the swearing-in of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The president vowed, "We're working every day and night to dismantle (bin Laden's) network and to bring him to justice."

Related:
Officials: Bin Laden Urges Zarqawi to Hit U.S.
Al-Qaeda's Completed Warning Cycle - Ready to Attack?

A terrorist attack on a tanker loaded with liquefied natural gas could cause massive damage a third of a mile away and could send a vapor cloud billowing more than 1.5 miles, government scientists say.

With the the nation clamoring for more natural gas, policy-makers are trying to figure out how to safely import large quantities of liquefied natural gas or LNG.

Posted on 11/03/2003 9:17:27 AM PST by tubavil

Monday, November 3, 2003

A new message was posted in the last few hours by the Jeddah-based al-Qaeda-linked Al-Islah (Reform) society calling on Muslims to flee New York, Washington and Los Angeles in advance of major al Qaeda attacks in those cities. This is revealed by DEBKAfile.