honda_s2k

According to the respectable media, many of these people live normal lives. They are your neighbor, you help them, they help you. You watch their kids and they do the same for you.

One day, they get the "call" and they are awakened!

The next thing you know, America's security has vaporized.

How can you defend your country against this kind of planning?

JRM

Knowing that this has happened it is the responsibility of every American to be aware of their surroundings and those in them. This doesn't mean to be nosey but to know them personally. To exchange ideas, thoughts, friendship etc. It is the responsibility of the government to provide protection from the outside and within. This hasn't been actively persued over the past 8 years. It will be now! You can be assured. Do not fear the unknown. Be vigilant this is the price of freedom! Always remember, never forgetting ever vigilant!!

KinchS2K

I think the terrorist sleeper cell theory is complete BS. Yes these terrorists were among us, but you'll note that those who came across them almost always say the same thing: "They were polite, but kept to themselves" -- or -- "They were kinda odd, but they never bothered anyone and always paid their rent on time." Note that the same descriptions are often given by neighbors/landlords of long-time serial killers.



I think there is a big difference between attempting to mix in, which is the logic behind the sleeper theory, and attempting to remain inconspicuous, which is the behavior that see now. These terrorists were not here to blend and and wait for "the call". They were here to plan, to recruit, and to develop the skills and knowledge they needed to carry out their heinous, but highly elaborate plot. If it was not necessary for them to spend a year in Florida learning how to fly a plane, they would not have been there. But it was necessary (as the Taliban correctly, but bizarrely, argued in asserting Bin laden's innocence, there are no flight training schools in Afghanistan) and to succeed without jeopardizing their goal, they had to maintain a low profile. The more you mix, the more you reveal to the world, the greater the risk that their plot would be exposed. For better or for worse, however, American society views the recluse as odd, but most likely harmless. We're a country of individualists and who is to say otherwise if someone prefers to keep to themselves. The fact that these same people suddenly go out and do something horrible is not the result of a switch suddenly being flipped, it is simply a byproduct of the fact that -- after years of planning -- their plot was finally ready to be put into action.