Two U.S.-bound packages from Yemen containing explosive material were intercepted in Britain and Dubai last week, and U.S. officials said al Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate was top of the list of possible suspects.
Parcel bombs, which 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski used to terrify Americans in the 1980s and 1990s, pale in comparison to the horrifying spectacle of hijacked jets ramming into the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
But U.S. officials and intelligence analysts say al Qaeda is increasingly drawn to less sophisticated attacks that require less communication and, in turn, are harder to spot.
They also generate a tremendous amount of attention, even when unsuccessful -- this time just ahead of heated U.S. congressional elections.
"There are indications that al-Qaeda and its affiliates are growing less attached to the kinds of spectacular attacks they once seemed to prefer," a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"They're looking more and more to less sophisticated, less costly, and perhaps less detectable operations."
The package scare caused broad disruptions last week, with the U.S. scrambling fighter jets to accompany a passenger jet and mobilizing explosive experts to search cargo planes.
Obama Sees Credible Threat
President Barack Obama addressed the nation, acknowledging what he saw as a "credible terrorist threat" using packages to target two Jewish places of worship in Chicago.
Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and one of its leading figures -- American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki -- increasingly have become priority U.S. targets since the group took responsibility for a failed plot to blow up a U.S. passenger jet on Christmas Day last year.
Awlaki has also been tied to an Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 soldiers in a November 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas -- another simpler, "soft-target" attack.
Analysts say part of the draw to literally mail-in an attack to the United States is the potentially disruptive impact it could have on commerce. One of the packages was mailed via UPS and the other through Fedex.
Paul Pillar, a former CIA officer, noted militants may be coming to the realization U.S. authorities simply cannot search all inbound mail or cargo.
"Just as a matter of scale, (it is) impossible to do comprehensive inspections of everything," Pillar said.
"So we should not be surprised that terrorist thinking of ways to cause harm within the United States would explore this as one of many possible channels."
White House counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan said al Qaeda has attempted to "adapt" to U.S. security measures in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, which have largely focused on commercial -- not cargo -- aircraft.
"Clearly they are looking for vulnerabilities in our system and take advantage of those vulnerabilities," Brennan said, adding that AQAP was "the most active operational franchise" of al Qaeda outside its Pakistan and Afghan traditional base.
Bruce Hoffman, a counter-terrorism expert and director of Georgetown University's security studies program, called the attacks a possible form of "terrorism theater" meant to create fear and anxiety ahead of Tuesday's congressional election.
"It certainly fits into terrorist groups' strategy to overwhelm us with a variety of different threats at different levels," Hoffman said. (Reuters)
