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Behind the Terror Alerts
(Washington Post) David Ignatius - Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have been working to penetrate the defenses that were created after Sept. 11, 2001. The recent case of Aafia Siddiqui suggests the seriousness of the threat. She was sentenced Sept. 23 in a New York federal court to 86 years in prison for shooting Americans who attempted to interrogate her. Born in Karachi, she majored in biology at MIT and earned a doctorate in neuroscience from Brandeis. In 2003 she married a nephew of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. When Siddiqui was arrested in Afghanistan, she was carrying documents in her handwriting that said: "A mass casualty attack...NY City monuments: Empire State Bld., Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, etc.," "Dirty Bomb: Need few oz. radioactive material." She was also carrying a computer flash drive that included the rumination: "Can go into supermarkets and randomly inject fruits with poisons, as well as other items that are usually eaten raw." Lest anyone think she was simply a fantasist, she was caught carrying two pounds of sodium cyanide, which can be used as an explosive.