9 years after 9/11, US faces more terror threats

Image: People look over the site of the former twin towers in New York City
Photographs: Gary Hershorn/Reuters

Nine years after the 9/11 attacks, the United States faces the threat of more home grown terror assaults, including prospects of suicide bombings and assassinations of top leaders, apart from Mumbai-style strikes, a leading research group in Washington has warned.

The fact that American citizens are engaged in suicide operations in Somalia raises the possibility that such attacks could start taking place in the United States itself, the Bipartisan Policy Centre's National Security Preparedness Group said in a 42-page report.

9 years after 9/11, US faces more terror threats

Image: Mourners at Ground Zero
Photographs: Chip East/Reuters

"To discount this possibility would be to ignore the lessons of the British experience," it said. Authored by Peter Bergen and Bruce Hoffman, the report titled 'Assessing the Terrorist Threat' warns that the success of Lashkar-e-Tayiba's 60-hour assault on Mumbai in November 2008, which involved 10 Pakistani terrorists all willing to die, is producing similar copycat operations known as 'Fidayeen' (self-sacrificing) attacks.

9 years after 9/11, US faces more terror threats

Image: A man holds a US flag while others pause for a moment of silence
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"The long, drawn-out assault in Mumbai produced round-the -clock coverage around the globe, something other terrorist groups want to emulate. We have already seen examples in attacks on Afghanistan government buildings and in a similar attack in October 2009 against GHQ, the Pakistani military headquarters in Rawalpindi," it said.

9 years after 9/11, US faces more terror threats

Image: The site of WTC attack in New York
Photographs: Gary Hershorn/Reuters

The report also warns of the possibility of assassinations of key leaders and US officials, and those who are perceived as insulting Islam.

"Because we rightly think of Al Qaeda and allied groups as preoccupied by inflicting mass-casualty attacks, we tend to ignore their long history of assassinating or attempting to assassinate key leaders and American officials," it said.

9 years after 9/11, US faces more terror threats

Image: A man stands at the September 11th memorial at the Pentagon
Photographs: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

"Today, America faces a dynamic threat that has diversified to a broad array of attacks, from shootings to car bombs to simultaneous suicide attacks to attempted in-flight bombings of passenger aircraft, and that this is a state of affairs that, as we approach the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, is cause for concern," Hoffman told reporters.

The fundamental conclusion of the report is that the threat has both diversified and become much more complex than it has been at any time since the attacks on September 11, 2001, he said.

9 years after 9/11, US faces more terror threats

Image: Onlookers stand inside the 'Tribute in Lights in Manhattan'
Photographs: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

"Equally, I think, of concern is the fact that there is no single profile of the terrorists threatening the United States today. What we see is an adversary that in essence is drawn from all sectors of society and all walks of life," he said.

9 years after 9/11, US faces more terror threats

Image: The 'Tribute in Lights' illuminates the sky over lower Manhattan
Photographs: Gary Hershorn/Reuters

"These include persons born in Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan and Somalia and resident in the US, in many cases naturalised American citizens, but also in the past few years what is being seen increasingly is American citizens themselves, people born in the US, also gravitating and being summoned through the clarion call of terrorism and, in this case, Jihad," Hoffman said.

9 years after 9/11, US faces more terror threats

Image: A New York City policeman at Ground Zero
Photographs: GN Miller/Reuters

Lee Hamilton, a vice chairman of the September 11 Commission which urged the government six years ago to be vigilant and nimble, said, "It's my perception -- and I could be wrong about this -- that the American people have kind of lost their focus on the threat, and I think one of the values of this report is that it brings the threat more into perspective -- as it is still serious and still dangerous".

"The American people just have to get a more realistic sense of what they're confronted with," he said.

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