THANKS FOR CALLING IN, GUYS – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:  The second man in Al Qaeda speaks to us from the heart:

Al Qaeda's second in command Ayman Al-Zawahiri has surfaced again, this time threatening more attacks against the U.S. and the West.

"Oh American people…We offered you a peace plan, and mutual benefit; but your governments were proud and haughty, and so the attacks against you followed one after another, everywhere – from Indonesia to Times Square, by way of Madrid and London. And the attacks are ongoing, and more will come one after another," said Zawahiri, according to a transcript provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute, based in Washington, DC.

I always worry about people who begin sentences with, "Oh..."  I mean, what century is that?

However, put the guy's comments in perspective:

Former White House national security official Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant, said that up until this point, there haven't been any correlations between Zawahiri's past threats and any attacks actually occurring.

"U.S. government and counterterrorism officials are not going to increase their alert based on Zawahiri's statement, because of his previous track record," Clarke said. "But they're on relatively high alert already because of the increase in homegrown terrorist threats related to al Qaeda."

COMMENT:  And that is the point.  We've had several very close calls - the Christmas plane bomber and the Times Square wannabe – and a successful attack at Fort Hood.  It's only a matter of time before someone gets through, gets the technology right, and makes a statement in an American city.

July 28, 2010