ZHUANG JIN/REUTERS INDONESIA: Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian group linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for this attack in August

Posted Sunday, November 23, 2003; 15.23GMT
Yet the tactic may backfire. The Saudi bombings pushed the complacent royal regime to crack down hard. In the past six months, Saudi police say they have foiled at least four plots, including a threat against the Holy Mosque in Mecca and a plan to assassinate Saudi intellectuals who oppose Islamic extremism. In addition to more than 400 arrests, police raids have yielded explosives, caches of rifles, computers, cell phones, counterfeit passports and disguises. Officers even found a stash of dresses and wigs, so terrorists could impersonate women, who generally pass through checkpoints without being searched.

Now Turkish security forces, known for their no-nonsense methods, will make it hot for militants who are thought to have used Turkey as a transit camp for personnel and money flowing between Europe and the Middle East. The Islamist-leaning party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is under intense pressure from Turkey's political opposition and secular establishment to prove it can get tough on terrorists. "Turkey," he said, "will be like a fist."

For all their efforts elsewhere, jihadists haven't forgotten their ultimate battleground — the U.S. Late last week, the Department of Homeland Security and the fbi issued another of their vague public warnings about possible threats. Privately, they say incoming intelligence reports are loaded with talk that al-Qaeda remnants are intent on pulling off another spectacular event. Officials believe such an attack is more likely to target U.S. interests abroad, simply because it's easier to assemble the weapons, explosives, vehicles and foot soldiers outside the U.S. But no one dares rule out attacks within the country. FBI agents were quietly contacting local police forces around the nation last week, warning them to step up vigilance around "critical infrastructure" targets, iconic structures and events that draw crowds. Britain was doing the same thing, as it ordered a security review of all embassies and consulates worldwide. In both countries, officials worry that the next attack will be the same kind that shattered Turkey last week: the car bomb.

[Killing fellow Muslims during Ramadan] is an act of unspeakable extremism ... That's the point — ROLAND JACQUARD

The FBI believes that up to now, the U.S. has escaped a second wave of attacks because bin Laden and his inner circle reserved it for themselves. Officials say Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, once al-Qaeda's main planner, has told interrogators the leaders micromanaged the 9/11 plot, tweaking and critiquing the evolving plan until they were sure it would come off as awesome and unforgettable. But current intelligence indicates that the remaining al-Qaeda ringleaders aren't calling the shots anymore. Even in the U.S., the international jihad movement seems free to pull off whatever they have the means and opportunity to do.

And as Turkey learned last week, it's hard to beat the devastating power of the simple suicide bomb. That's all it took to send Gozde Ciftlik, a dark-haired woman in her early twenties, rushing to Istanbul's Taksim Hospital to look for her father Ismail, a security guard at the British Consulate. When she saw his name on the list of fatalities, her anguished cry spoke for terror victims everywhere. "Damn you, whoever did this," she screamed. "You are not people, you are monsters."

With reporting by Timothy J. Burger and Elaine Shannon/ Washington, Bruce Crumley/Paris, Scott MacLeod/Cairo and Pelin Turgut/Istanbul

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