Al-Qaeda goes for decapitation

Remember my earlier post "Al-Qaeda attack soon and it will be chemical!"
here

In that article I said "Al-Qaeda's hallmark is large scale multiple attacks at once and they may be planning to hit the US and UK simultaneously."

So what did lawmakers in the US and the UK do this week? From Jihad Watch

In Washington, they discussed what to do if 100 or more members of Congress were killed. In London, there was a "specific threat" to the House of Commons. From The Telegraph, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

MI5 discovered a "specific threat" that terrorists were planning to use anthrax or ricin to launch a deadly attack in the Commons chamber, MPs were told yesterday. This helped to persuade them to vote in favour of spending £1.3 million on a permanent glass security barrier between the public gallery and rest of the chamber.

See, you don't have to destroy the buildings to destroy the government.

The 911 attacks were billed by some as the ingenious use of "low tech" by Al-Qaeda. After all, they didn't have their own missiles so they improvised and turned aircraft into missiles.

Another hallmark of Al-Qaeda is they learn their lessons well and they like to attack a target again using a new method. They learned their lesson with the first bombing of the World Trade Center and finished the job the second time. There were several years between those two attacks. It has been several years since 911.

Does Al-Qaeda have any "unfinished" jobs in the US?

Well information suggests that the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was meant for the White House. Indeed, some Jihadist websites picture a burning Capitol Building. Some critisize these websites as being ignorant for making the common mistake of tourists; mistaking the Capitol Building for the White House.

I'd say based on what we are seeing here that the Jihadists are not mistaken, the Capitol Building is the real target. Think about it. Eliminate the President and maybe Cheney as well and what is the effect? Sure it is a crisis but our system of government is set up for just such an eventuality. Now eliminate a large majority of the Congress and what is the effect? How long would it take to put a functioning government in place? Think of the chaos and think of the propaganda value.

Having learned the lessons of previous attacks how would Al-Qaeda approach the task this time? More "low tech" probably. Any number of chemicals or gas will do and you really don't have to kill a lot of people. Contaminating the building would cause a major disruption of government.

What would the political fall out of that be? The President's opponents would size on the attack as proof positive that Bush is unable to protect the Capitol much less the whole country. Countries around the world would also wonder about America's ability to defend itself and its interests.

The image that Al-Qaeda is a bunch of tent living camel jockeys could be fatal.