NORWAY?  WHAT DID THE NORWEGIANS DO? – AT 10:39 A.M. ET:  You all know the game that's played when we deal with the Jihadists.  "Why, we brought it on ourselves," say their sympathizers, and their leftist allies.  Apparently, Norway, where nothing ever happens, has done something sinful:

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- When police arrested a suspected al-Qaida cell in Norway last month they turned up the makings of a bomb lab tucked away in a nondescript Oslo apartment building.

An Associated Press investigation shows that authorities learned early on about the alleged cell by intercepting e-mails from an al-Qaida operative in Pakistan and -- thanks to those early warnings -- were able to secretly replace a key bomb-making ingredient with a harmless liquid when one of the suspects ordered it at an Oslo pharmacy.

Officials say the suspected plot against this quiet Nordic country was one of three planned attacks on the West hatched in the rugged mountains of northwest Pakistan by some of al-Qaida's most senior leaders. The other plots targeted the bustling New York subway and a shopping mall in Manchester, England.

Interviews with U.S. and European intelligence officials and documents reviewed by the AP paint the picture of a loosely organized cell that was doomed to fail long before Norwegian police raided its basement lab in suburban Oslo in July. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the cases publicly.

COMMENT:  These plots are, fortunately, often incompetently designed.  But that should give us no reassurance.  All it takes is one massive bomb to go off in a crowded area for hundreds to die.  Eventually, jihadist mistakes will be corrected.

We forget that September 11, 2001 was the second terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York.  The first occurred in 1993 and killed six people when a huge bomb went off in a parking garage.  We didn't take the warning seriously enough.

August 29, 2010