AT IT AGAIN – AT 10:37 P.M. ET:  Reader Joseph J. Gallick alerts us to this story reporting that Osama bin Laden, late of Abottabad, Pakistan, was plotting a new attack against America when he was biologically inconvenienced by Navy SEALS.  From The Wall Street Journal:

Osama bin Laden was working to assemble a team of militants to attack the U.S. on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 hijackings, according to communications that Navy SEALs seized from his Pakistani hideout when they killed the al Qaeda leader this spring.

Bin Laden and his operations chief, Attiyah Abd al-Rahman, swapped views about the composition of the attack team, with bin Laden repeatedly rejecting names that Mr. Rahman suggested, according to U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence taken from the bin Laden compound.

The plans were only in the discussion phase, American officials said. They have not seen any signs that the nascent plot ever went beyond the early planning, the officials said.

Still, earlier this month in his first meeting with senior staff at the Central Intelligence Agency, acting Director Michael Morell told his staff that one of their top priorities would be to make sure neither that plan nor any others were carried out.

Plans for an anniversary attack were one of the few specific potential threats to emerge from the trove of documents and other materials taken from bin Laden's residence in Abottabad, Pakistan, in the May 2 raid.

Much of the other threat information in the trove of materials was general in nature and well known, such as al Qaeda's interest in attacking trains.

COMMENT:  This simply demonstrates that the war on terror is a long war, and that we're bound, eventually, to suffer some setbacks in the form of successful operations carried out against us.  There is an attempt by some in Washington to argue that bin Laden's death means we can hasten our withdrawal from Afghanistan.  It means nothing of the kind because Al Qaeda lives on, just as the Japanese military lived on, even after the assassination, by American pilots, of its leading admiral, Isoroku Yamamoto, in 1943.  Al Qaeda is based on an ideology.

I'm sure all American intelligence assets will be on special alert during the September 11th memorial period.

Reader Gallick also alert us to the indictment of one Emerson Winfield Begolly, of New Bethelehem, Pennsylvania, for "allegedly soliciting Islamic extremists to engage in acts of terrorism within the United States and posting bomb-making instruction materials online."  Another nice, cuddly guy.  The FBI press release is here. 

Eternal vigilance, friends.  Eternal vigilance.

July 14, 2011