IN THE NEWS
This article in yesterday's New York Times regurgitates a section of the 9/11 Commission report covering Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an al Qaeda leader captured in 2003. We should all be happy that Mohammed is in custody, since it's very likely, according to the report, that he was the person who concocted the 9/11 attack plan, hijacking airliners and crashing them into buildings. It wasn't his only idea, either. While many of his other schemes probably would never have left the drawing boards, if he had been free to operate as a terrorist entrepreneur, other groups than al Qaeda might have given Mohammed's other ideas a try.
What's especially interesting about Mohammed is his arms-length relationship with bin Laden and al Qaeda. Given its loose structure, al Qaeda was tailor-made in many ways for Mohammed. Many of the al Qaeda leaders are similar entrepreneurs, though perhaps more comfortable living within the group's command structure than Mohammed was. This same network, not hierarchical, organization has helped al Qaeda set up shop more easily in new countries where it wants to operate, such as the Philippines and the Sudan.
As in any entrepreneurial network, however, your credibility is all-important. Mohammed often strained credulity. According to the 9/11 Commission's report, bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders recognized a great deal of potential in Mohammed as an operational planner, but they also retained a lot of skepticism about him. Given his own interest in maintaining his status as an independent operator, there was a critical period during which al Qaeda wasn't sure about Mohammed, and Mohammed wasn't sure about al Qaeda.
Today, there are other conversations like those between Mohammed and bin Laden occurring--not just within al Qaeda circles, but in other terrorists groups. The most obvious conclusion (and you don't need to be on the 9/11 Commission to have reached it) is that we need better intelligence to detect these conversations as they're happening.
Then we need to do something about them. One important step is to deny someone like Mohammed credibility. The US government needs to look smarter than the terrorists, and certainly not dancing to their tune.
Which makes, yet again, Tom Ridge's continued content-free terrorist alerts a genuine fiasco. If they are based on "chatter," then the Khalid Sheikh Mohammeds of today are chattering about how brilliant their ideas are, how they'll terrify the Americans, how personally important they are to the future of al Qaeda and other groups. If, indeed, there had been some vague intelligence about terrorist plots around the November elections, then the Ridge announcement of two weeks ago helps, not hurts, the Khalid Sheikh Mohammeds out there. Sure, we need to roust a sleepy Mohammed from his safe house in Pakistan after he has seen his 9/11 brainchild come to fruition. We also need to discredit people like him before they become major players.
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