Officials Warn al Qaeda 'Certain' to Try Attack Soon - WSJ

Al Qaeda remains a significant threat to the US and the group's recent evolution in tactics includes dispatching individuals who can enter the US without arousing suspicion, such as the man accused of attempting the Christmas Day attack. Such tactics have created "a new degree of difficulty" for US spies seeking to thwart the next attack.

In addition to terrorism, cyberattacks are the other key threat Mr. Blair emphasized, saying that "American efforts are not strong enough" to combat cyber threats. The recent cyberattacks on Google were a "wake-up call" that the attackers are outstripping US defenses.

Blair said it isn't certain that US computer networks would remain available in a time of crisis.

Senators Warned of Terrorist Attack on U.S. by July - NYT

Mr. Blair began his annual threat testimony before Congress by saying that the threat of a crippling attack on telecommunications and other computer networks was growing as an increasingly sophisticated group of enemies had ?severely threatened? the sometimes fragile systems undergirding the country?s information infrastructure.

His emphasis on the threat points up the growing concerns among American intelligence officials about the potentially devastating results of a coordinated attack on the nation?s technology apparatus, sometimes called a ?cyber Pearl Harbor.?

He said that the surge in cyberattacks, including the recent penetration of Google?s servers from inside China, was a ?wake-up call? for those who dismissed the threat of computer warfare.

?Sensitive information is stolen daily from both government and private sector networks, undermining confidence in our information systems, and in the very information these systems were intended to convey,? Mr. Blair said.

Intelligence officials say al-Qaeda will try to attack U.S. in next 6 months - WaPo

The Obama administration's top intelligence officials on Tuesday described it as "certain" that al-Qaeda or its allies will try to attack the United States in the next six months, and they called for new flexibility in how US officials detain and question terrorist suspects.

The officials, testifying before the Senate intelligence committee, also warned of increased risk of cyberattacks in the coming months, saying that the recent China-based hacking of Google's computers was both a "wake-up call" and a forerunner to future strikes aimed at private businesses or intended to cause economic disruption.

Intelligence chiefs say another terror attempt in U.S. is 'certain' - CNN

Al Qaeda is adapting methods to make their plots more difficult to detect, shifting from large attacks with multiple players to using individuals without any background in terrorism, Panetta said. ...

Blair, however, said the handling of terror suspects requires flexibility ...

Mueller noted that incentive agreements with suspects have many times resulted in gaining "actionable intelligence" that otherwise might never have come forward.

What we see happening here is the construction of an official narrative designed to pave the way for the next false-flag terror attack in the US and provide a justification for shutting down the internet in the aftermath to prevent public discussion, the dissemination of open-source intelligence and citizen investigations.

We must scrutinize the evidence and challenge the veracity of this narrative in order to expose the covert machinations at work here, if civil society is to prepare, guard and defend against the next wave of state-sponsored false-flag terrorism.