The main reason 9/11 was successful with a bunch of box cutters was because in three of the planes the passengers thought it was a routine hijacking and had been conditioned to cooperate.

The question is not is AQ a global ‘organization’ with a chief, directors, divisions and branches, etc. It is a distributed force of like-minded people, some quite competent, others simply willing to commit suicide. But–the targets are also distributed and great damage can be done in many places by a few people in a low-tech manner, eg crashing a truck load of chlorine gas in a suitable place; perhaps blowing one of many relatively small, under-maintained dams and flooding a suburb. No need for an ‘organization’, just some fanatics united by their religion and hatred.

Just today a woman was arrested in Iraq. Her colleagues were raping women, then she would counsel them to erase the shame via a suicide bombing.

Even a fairly small disaster is worth much sensational publicity. Cheney’s right–we can’t relax; smooth and charm won’t get it.