Yippee: Increased Threats From Airborne Terrorists

Coming soon to an airplane near you:

Osama bin Laden's word choice in the latest audio message attributed to him is seen as a "possible indicator" of an upcoming attack by his Al-Qaeda network, a US monitoring group warned Sunday.

IntelCenter, a US group that monitors Islamist websites, also said that manner of the release and the content of the message showed it was "credible" that it was a new release from the Saudi extremist.

"The Osama bin Laden audio message released to Al-Jazeera on 24 January 2010 contains specific language used by bin Laden in his statements in advance of attacks," IntelCenter said in a statement.

The group said it considered the language "a possible indicator of an upcoming attack" in the next 12 months.

It fits - we've talked more than once before about how these terrorists like to test a new President.  The first WTC bombing happened in Clinton's second year, and 9/11 happened in Bush's second year.  And, we now have concrete indicators that something may be ramping up via Hot Air:

Over the last few days, the UK raised its terror threat level to "severe," prompting a number of changes in their approach to air-traffic security.  The Mirror reports on one potential explanation for this concern — a sudden increase in attempts by people on the "no-fly" list to board planes destined for the US:

Two men were stopped boarding US-bound planes at Heathrow days before Britain's terror threat was raised to "severe".

News of the incidents came hours after Home Secretary Alan Johnson lifted the threat level amid fears that al-Qaeda is planning an attack. …

Security sources say an Egyptian was stopped last Saturday as he tried to board an American Airlines flight to Miami. A man from Saudi Arabia was banned from boarding a United Airlines flight to Chicago the next day and sent back to Saudi. …

Anti-terror officials said the past week had seen an "unusually high" number of people on their no-fly list trying to board US-bound planes.

Was the Undie Bomber a test run?  What happens if we see a group of Undie Bombers that slip through the no-fly lists and get control of ten or fifteen jets all at the same time, and all inbound to the U.S.?  They've tried it before.  While the Obama administration's first act will probably be to blame Bush, and their second act will likely be to assign lawyers to the terrorists, what can they really do to prevent such a widespread attack?  If they get on the planes and the planes take off, nothing.  It will be too late, and hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of Americans will die because of the weakness and naivete of our current President and his policies.

There's my two cents.