`Lone Wolf` Threats To Anniversary Of 9/11 Attacks
Aug. 17--NEW YORK -- The Department of Homeland Security has issued an intelligence bulletin warning of attacks that may be carried out by individual extremists. This as President Barack Obama said in an interview that a 'lone wolf' attack is more likely than a massive coordinated attack this city experienced 10 years ago.
The President said in a television interview, " ... the risk that we're especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacres of the sort that we saw in Norway recently. You know, when you've got one person who is deranged or driven by a hateful ideology, they can do a lot of damage, and it's a lot harder to trace those lone wolf operators."
In Norway last month, 69 people were killed in a youth camp following an explosion. 32 year old extremist Anders Behring Brevik has been charged in the case, his lawyer saying Breivik believed the massacre was necessary to save Norway from Muslims and to punish those who support multiculturalism.
In the U.S. there have been numerous cases in which individuals, acting on their own, have sought to carry out attacks. Including the underwear bomber attempt on Christmas Day 2009, and the Times Square Bombing last year.
A concern for federal law enforcement as well as local law enforcement. Reporters today asked Police Commissioner Ray Kelly about 'lone wolves,' he replied "what we see now is the radicalization of young men with information they get over the internet ... we have our antennae up for people like this, but let me tell you, they're not easy to spot." Commissioner Kelly went on to point out, twice, Osama Bin Laden threatened to carry out an attack on the anniversary of the 2001 attacks. "You have to be concerned'" Kelly said.
While law enforcement entities generally agree Al Qaeda has weakened over the last two years, including the milestone of killing of Bin Laden, the short term risks are still high. Unfortunately, the short term includes the anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
