“The terrorism threat against the United States has evolved, with homegrown terrorists and a greater diversity in the scope and methods of attack making it more difficult to prevent them, top security officials told a Senate committee Wednesday [September 22, 2010]. ‘It is diversifying in terms of sources; it is diversifying in terms of tactics,’ Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Homeland Security Committee. ‘The results of these changing tactics are fewer opportunities to detect and disrupt plots.’ …Napolitano, along with FBI Director Robert Mueller and Michael Leiter, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said the number of terrorist attacks against the United States increased in the past 15 months. In particular, they cited the Fort Hood, Texas, shootings; the failed Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner; and the failed car bomb attempt in New York City’s Times Square as examples of the increasing attacks. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the panel’s ranking Republican, called the increased attacks ‘alarming and significant.’ ‘The past two years have taught us through harsh lessons that we simply must increase our efforts,’ Collins said. Napolitano said the nature of terrorist attacks continues to evolve, with recent attacks coming faster and with ‘less extensive pre-operational planning than previous attempts and with fewer linkages to international terrorist organizations.’ ‘There is a rising threat from attacks that use improvised explosives devices, other explosives, and small arms,’ she said in a written statement presented to the committee. ‘This type of attack has been common in hot spots around the world for some time, but we have now experienced such attempted attacks in the United States.’ Unlike the highly planned large-scale September 11, attacks, the smaller-scale attacks seen now require ‘less planning and fewer pre-operational steps,’ Napolitano’s statement said.”
– “Terror Threat Against America Diversifying, Security Officials Say,” CNN.com, Sep. 22, 2010