Al Qaida Strikes Again

This weekend's failed bomb attempt points to the gradually enhancing capability of al Qaida's Yemen affiliate to attack on United States soil. The foiled strike was described by US Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, as having "the hallmarks of al Qaida".

The two packages, addressed to Chicago synagogues, one an LGBT synagogue, were found to have held explosive PETN, the same powerful chemical explosive used by the Nigerian man who attempted to blow up an airliner traveling to Detroit on last year's Christmas Day.

That terror plot was also devised in Yemen, a country which is at the core of a new axis of terror, and viewed by many as "one of the most significant fronts in the battle with extremists", according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Al Qaida also had connections to the Fort Hood gunman, who murdered 13 people last November at the Texas military complex, as well as to the terrorist who failed to detonate a car full of explosives in Times Square in May.

In the past 14 months, terrorists have both attempted and succeeded in killing US citizens, and in attacking American values.

In those same months, there was a strong public debate regarding the building of a mosque merely two blocks from ground zero. Many Americans were angered by the thought that an Islamic center would be built so close to the sight of the attacks by al Qaida terrorists on September 11, 2001. However, many of us have let that anger die down, and we have ceased our rigorous protests.

Al Qaida has proven that they will not cease to strike against the American people and principles, including our free market economy, our multicultural military, and our freedom of religion and expression. We must not sit back and watch our morals be damaged by these extremists. We must respond by continuing to stand up for these very values which are being attacked.