Intelligence experts warned Wednesday that the massive terror plot involving simultaneous assault-style attacks in London, Paris, and Germany represents a serious escalation in al-Qaida's war with the West, and poses a clear and present danger to the United States.
European counter-terrorism officials are describing the plan of attack as being modeled on the November 2008 assault in Mumbai, India. In that attack, several teams fanned out across the city and used explosives and automatic weapons to kill over 170 people.
Der Spiegel is reporting a 36-year-old Hamburg man was arrested in Kabul in July provided authorities with intelligence about a series of attacks planned for Germany and neighboring European countries. He stated several teams of attackers bearing European passports had received training in remote Waziristan and Pakistan.
The plot is believed related to heightened security around the Eiffel Tower, which has been closed to tourists twice in the past week.
"It's completely certain that at some point, something like that will happen here," Michael Scheuer, former CIA counter terrorism expert who headed the unit assigned to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. "It's not only because you have increasing numbers of young Muslim males who are U.S. citizens who want to act violently, but we have completely neutered our police forces because they have 12 million undocumented aliens that they have to worry about, and they don't know a thing about them.
"So it's a huge problem," Scheuer says, "and not an easy one by any means."
ForeignPolicy.com reported the plot disrupted Tuesday involved "simultaneous Mumbai-style attacks -- with coordinated attackers taking hostages, using guns and grenades -- on cities in the U.K., France, and Germany."
Author Steve Emerson, one of the nation's leading experts on terror, and the executive director of The Investigative Project on Terrorism, tells Newsmax that if al-Qaida is shown to be behind the series of attacks that were planned in Europe, "It would represent an escalation, as well as of course an expansion and diversification of their tactics, considering the success achieved in Mumbai."
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