Big Think

 Paul Cruickshank: Well we saw very well in the month after 9/11 Al Qaeda trying to launch another attack using Richard Reid, a shoe bomber.  And alert members on board the aircraft saw that he was engaging in suspicious activity and alerted the stewardesses on that aircraft of what was going on, and they were able to stop him from launching an attack.  So an alert general public is very, very important in combating terrorism.  Also the creation of “no fly lists”, which is very controversial suddenly.  But it has stopped certain individuals from coming into the United States.  That makes it much more difficult for Al Qaeda to launch operations.  They got very lucky on 9/11, and a lot went right for them.  They were able to push about 20 operatives into the United States.  That would be much, much more difficult to do in the current climate.  Because anybody coming into the United States from a Middle Eastern country is subject to a lot of scrutiny.  People are alert to this threat right now.  The real concern is that it might be a European operative; maybe even a convert to Islam who looks like any average White American and can really sort of operate in America without attracting much attention – that they might try and launch some sort of operation.  For Al Qaeda operations to succeed, you really need to have a logistical support network in place in the United States to start with.  And because of the very low radicalization rates of the Muslim community, Al Qaeda doesn’t have any infrastructure in the United States to make such an operation feasible.  So they might be able to get people in the United States, but then what?  How do they get bombs?  How do they create safe houses?  How do they operate?  It’s very, very difficult for them to operate.  And the main reason the United States has not been attacked since 9/11 is because it’s been very difficult for Al Qaeda to launch an attack.  They’ve wanted to launch an attack every day since 9/11, and it’s been a failure for them because they haven’t been able to do so.

Recorded on: Jan 14 2008