Could suicide bombers strike in the United States?The London attacks have all sorts of implications for us,” Miami Police Chief John Timoney told USA Today. High among them is the suggestion that the British bombing suspects are homegrown terrorists who did not draw the attention of law enforcement before the attacks. “If these guys did not appear on the radar screen before the attacks, it raises the question of how many more are out there and how many are here,” he says. “We have not faced these kinds of attacks before, and the incidents in London bring it that much closer.”
Timoney and Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton say small-scale assaults at subway stations or shopping centers are similar to a string of bombings in Iraq and Israel in recent months. “People may begin to think that they can’t be safe anywhere,” Timoney says. Bratton plans to dispatch a team of Los Angeles police investigators next week to London, where intelligence is to be shared. A team of New York police officials already is there. The International Association of Chiefs of Police said on its Web site: “Exactly when the next suicide bombing will take place on American soil is unknown, but most counterterrorism experts believe that more attacks are a certainty.”
Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-07-13-fear-of-suicide-attacks_x.htm