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The answer is simple. Al-Qaeda has placed a number of "sleeper-cells" in various places throughout the world, including the United States. These activity of the cells, when they are inactive, is to blend in with their surroundings and not act abnormal or out of place. The terrorists who carried out the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been in the U.S. ranging from a few months to a few years and their presence raised little or no suspicion with authorities. The terrorist cells become active either at a pre-determined time, or when they receive a "signal" from a leader or another cell. Even certain events can cause a cell to become active. Once active, the terrorist cell has a predetermined mission or goal that they must meet and this is something that they have been working towards since their entrance into the country. Once again, a perfect example of this type of behavior is found in the activities of the terrorists who carried out the attacks on September 11, 2001. They were classic terrorists.
So it is entirely possible that there are already Al-Qaeda cells "hiding" amongst the population in the United States or even Canada. They are more than likely very inconspicuous, not on any "watch list", they probably have entered the country legally or on a student visa and won't be heard from until it is probably too late. This is a "curse", so to speak, of a lack of security prior to the September 11th attacks since it is likely that many of these cells have been in North America prior to that day. This makes them even harder to find and makes it even harder to predict and maybe even stop future terrorist attacks.
So now, with Al-Qaeda gaining momentum once again and terrorist attacks on the rise, the war on terror is proven to not be over. There is still much more work that needs to be done to end Al-Qaeda's operations around the world and we can't expect them to cease functioning immediately. Still, with all the effort that has been focused on bringing down this notorious terrorist group, you would think that mounting such an attack as they did in Saudi Arabia would be difficult but it seemingly wasn't. I believe that the United States and its allies should immediately begin a concerted and heavy effort to end the threat of terrorism to help insure safety and security for its people.
