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Separating Terror from Terrorism
On Dec. 15, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent a
joint bulletin to state and local law enforcement agencies expressing
their concern that terrorists may attack a large public gathering in a
major U.S. metropolitan area during the 2010 holiday season. That
concern was echoed by contacts at the FBI and elsewhere who told
STRATFOR they were almost certain there was going to be a terrorist
attack launched against the United States over Christmas.
Certainly, attacks during the December holiday season are not unusual.
There is a history of such attacks, from the bombing of Pan Am Flight
103 on Dec. 21, 1988, and the thwarted millennium attacks in December
1999 and January 2000 to the post-9/11 airliner attacks by shoe bomber
Richard Reid on Dec. 22, 2001, and by underwear bomber Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab on Dec. 25, 2009. Some of these plots have even stemmed
from the grassroots. In December 2006, Derrick Shareef was arrested
while planning an attack he hoped to launch against an Illinois shopping
mall on Dec. 22. Read more »
