Two questions that I have pondered about this "War on Terror" are
1 -Historically, small groups within Goverments have orchestated events to gain power and further their agendas, could this have happened here? and if this is so, very plausible possibility I think, why have'nt they struck again domestically to continue and/or add changes/ gain power when the tide of popular, legislative and judicial opinion appers to be turning against what I'll term the "hawks" agenda?
2 - Al-Queda has, as far a I know, only struck domestically twice, WTC '93 and '01, in the last 12/13 years. If this is the dedicated and sophisticated terror organization that's it's portrayed to be, why not more often? Is it difficult to enter the US covertly?,no. Is it difficult to manufacture, buy or steal the necessary equipment, not really. Again, why not more often?
One possible explanation is that before '01 they were'nt up to speed, and after '01 we are, we have done a great job of prevention. Another is that this is the modern equivelent of the 17th Century European Witch Hunts, a very dubious threat that's being prosecuted to gain power over the people.
I'm inclined to more believe the latter, my association to goverment makes me highly skeptical of their ethics and competence.
That's not me saying that's there's not a terrorist threat, but I'm not willing to sign on to restructuring of our way of life based on the evidence of threat I'm seeing.
I have more questions than answers. I'm not on the inside of counterterrorism, and that process is so compartmentalized that many people who supposedly are don't have a true understanding of the big picture.
I do believe two things. One is that Thomas Jefferson, Paine, Franklin, etc. would probably say that we as a free people have much more to fear from an encroaching government than from a terrorist organization and two that all this emphasis on counterterrrorism has seriously diminished capacity in countercrime work within law enforcement, they've been bleeding the latter to pay the former.
More questions than answers, stay alert, stay critical.