Al Qaeda Dead-Enders Alive, Kicking

[Draggingtree]

The Heritage Foundation: Al Qaeda Dead-Enders Alive, Kicking

PETER BROOKES, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION

While the dramatic US and Arab air attacks this week in Syria on the Islamic State should be welcomed, the real story is the strikes on the shadowy al-Qaeda-affiliated terror group Khorasan. Who? Yeah, that's what a lot of folks said. It turns out that the supposed al-Qaeda on-the-run crowd wasn't actually surrendering, but instead was hoofing it to the anarchy in Syria to concoct a plot to target Western airliners with explosives. From what we know, an al Qaeda-run terrorist cell, run by an Osama bin Laden acolyte, was planning to smuggle some sort of newfangled bomb onto a Western aircraft for detonation in or over Europe, the United States or somewhere in between. Thankfully, due to super-sharp US intelligence, brave American aviators, and others doing their patriotic duty to protect Lady Liberty, the kibosh was put on that "imminent" terrorist threat - for the moment at least. But the revelation of this heretofore unheard of al-Qaeda group raises a number of troubling issues. First, the fact that Khorasan is run by Muhsin al Fadhli,