Sarah Adams

Al‑Qaeda Isn’t Finished. They’re Intent on Turning Past Failures into Success. One of the most important things people miss about al‑Qaeda is this: They don’t abandon failed plots. They recycle them. Their current U.S. homeland strategy is built on bringing old failures back, and this time, making them succeed. Look at the pattern: They hit the World Trade Center in 1993 and failed to bring it down. Eight years later, they came back and finished the job. The same mindset applies to everything else al‑Qaeda tried and couldn’t pull off: Project Bojinka was the original blueprint for using commercial aviation as a weapon. Parts of it failed in the 1990s. They brought the idea back and used it to build 9/11. They still believe Bojinka must be completed. That is why the aviation plot is back. None of these ideas are over. The group’s current U.S. homeland plot is not new, it is simply being fulfilled by the next generation of al-Qaeda. It is a direct extension of what they attempted before, only now they intend to turn every past failure into a success. Yes, you read that right. Every. Single. One. Abu Bakr Naji, al‑Qaeda strategist and doctrinal advisor, author of The Management of Savagery, believed failure was part of a longer-term strategy, not a terminal endpoint. In his framework, setbacks aren’t the end of jihad, just a step in escalation, refinement, and eventual success. He wrote: “If we fail—we seek refuge with God from that—it does not mean an end of the matter. Rather, this failure will lead to an increase in savagery.” Understanding this is key: the next attack will hit harder. Our intelligence community knows how each plot failed before. So why can’t they thwart them now?

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