A bulletin was recently distributed by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) to law enforcement entities nationwide, and Christians should pay attention.
In what the NCTC describes as an “enduring threat to public safety,” the short document warns that al Qaeda (AQ) has recently issued a series of public calls for attacks inside America.
Perhaps the most acute risk is that we’re emotionally spent and preoccupied with the emerging specter of Leftist American terrorism so much so that we risk shrugging off the growing potential for an Islamic terror attack.
But take this new AQ threat very seriously – there’s more to this story than what is outlined in the NCTC warning.
The Enemy Is Inside the Gates
According to the NCTC warning, “Al-Qa‘ida’s resurgence of calls for attacks in the homeland highlights its persistent and enduring threat to the country, US officials, and public safety.”
The report lists three specific examples of AQ directing supporters to attack government officials, law enforcement, and “that large protests or civil disturbances could be good opportunities to commit an act of terrorism,” as “there is no distinction between civilian and military targets.”
The threat appears to be far more extensive and highly coordinated than indicated in the bulletin – at least according to a group of former intelligence analysts and operatives from the Transatlantic Intelligence Consortium (TIC).
The group is made up of bona fide intelligence experts who still have sources inside the Taliban. Unbeknownst to most, AQ is still being sheltered by the Taliban, which has enabled the terrorist organization to refortify its numbers and also to conduct extensive training in camps across Afghanistan.
The TIC spells out its findings in AL-QAEDA 2.0 – The Upcoming Attack on The United States and Europe Unveiled (Understanding Global Jihad), a short book that reads like a intel briefing.
The TIC explains how its information is sourced and how it cross-referenced and verified the intel through bona fide intelligence practices such as signals intelligence (SIGINT), geospatial intelligence (GEOINT), and open-source intelligence (OSINT).
A National Network of Terrorists
AQ 2.0 describes that highly trained jihadists have infiltrated the United States and are spread out in a de-centralized framework with plans that are highly compartmentalized and known only to a small group of AQ leadership within the country.
Their mission is to launch coordinated attacks to maximize chaos and psychological shock and to overwhelm the ability of first responders to cover all the events. AQ has purportedly based their plan on the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, where only 10 jihadists murdered 170 people through a series of coordinated assaults across different locations using small arms and explosive devices.
The briefing also describes that some cells will be directed to proactively attack military and law enforcement facilities with the objective of slowing the response of police rushing to attend to concurrent attacks, and also for AQ operatives to try to capture weapons and ammunition.
Why Is This Not Widely Reported?
But why are we not hearing about this intelligence from the NCTC?
Perhaps the people in charge don’t want to tip their hand and are already working to identify the cells and coordinate mass raids. Let’s pray that it’s not the same “failure of imagination” that the 9/11 Commission cited as a leading reason for why the terrorist were able to carry out their plans in 2001.
But know this much – the threat is real.
“This is the best [information] you can get [via] Open Source,” said former CIA targeting-analyst and senior advisor on the Select Committee on Benghazi, Sarah Adams, who contributed to AQ 2.0. On the Shawn Ryan Show, Adams describes details about the AQ plan and how they were able to infiltrate the U.S.:
Know Your Enemy. Pray For Them. But Be Prepared.
Reader, you’re immensely blessed because contributors to The Stream – Raymond Ibrahim, Dr. Timothy Furnish, and Ayman Ayoub – make up a trifecta of renown thinkers and scholars on the nature of Islam and jihad. What these men can teach you will disabuse any lingering notion that we’re past the possibility of another large jihadi attack on U.S. soil.
“Today’s political refrain that jihadist violence is a distortion of Islam collapses in the face of such history,” wrote Ibrahim recently in an article that explains the creedal impulsion that has driven jihad from Islam’s inception to the present day.
If podcasts are more your speed, then listen to Dr. Furnish’s episode on Spotify, titled Leftist and Islamic Violence: Twin Sons of Different Mothers, where he unfolds how violence from both groups stems from rabid intolerance.
All of these men can help you understand what you are facing and why you must disregard the Leftist revisionist history that points to “racist colonialism” as the driver of Islamic agitation.
The truth is that the Atlantic Ocean can’t safeguard us anymore, and if AQ does indeed poised to carry out an attack on the U.S. Homeland, then churches and large Christian events will surely be prime targets.
The bottom line is this – the NCTC bulletin was distributed to law enforcement nationally and also made public for a reason: this threat is very real. And if Adams and the cadre of former intel officers are correct, then now is the time to ensure that your church has thorough security plans and that you learn about basic principles of situational awareness and self-defense.
Christians in America are facing the reality of having multiple different threats that target us for our faith and our nationality. But fear not, because Christ already told you this would happen. (Matthew 10:22) And who knows, perhaps you were born for such a time as this.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” (The Fellowship of the Ring.)
Joachim Osther is a freelance writer focusing on the intersection of culture and Christianity. He holds a master’s degree in theological studies from Veritas College and Seminary, and two degrees in the life sciences, a field in which he works as a strategist, advisor, and published author. He is also an occasional contributor to RaymondIbrahim.com, chronicling the relevance of historical clashes between militant Islam and the West.
