<\/a>Targeting terrorism<\/p><\/div>\n
Ever since al-Qaida attacked the United States in 2001, U.S. authorities have worked to detect and prevent the next big terrorist strike.<\/p>\n
But officials and counter-terrorism experts say the Christmas airline plot and last November's shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, may have shown al-Qaida that smaller-scale attacks also can prove unsettling, without the complexity and risk of bigger attempts.<\/p>\n
The Christmas Day attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound flight \u2014 allegedly by a young Nigerian man with explosives in his underwear \u2014 was not successful. The attempt, however, shook the government, set agencies against each other and led to months of political second-guessing.<\/p>\n
Short of mass casualties, the attack produced the kind of reaction that al-Qaida desires.<\/p>\n
Now it appears that the group, which has prided itself on its ideological purism, seems to be eyeing a more pragmatic and perhaps more dangerous shift in tactics. The emerging message appears to be that big successes are great, but sometimes simply trying can be just as good.<\/p>\n
It's not clear what Osama bin Laden and his senior leaders are thinking and plotting. But U.S.-born al-Qaida spokesman Adam Gadahn made a public pitch for such smaller, single acts of jihad in a recent Internet video.<\/p>\n
“Even apparently unsuccessful attacks on Western mass transportation systems can bring major cities to a halt, cost the enemy billions and send his corporations into bankruptcy,” Gadahn said in the video.<\/p>\n
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