How Vulnerable Is The United States To A Brussels-Like Attack?

[Purveyor]

Matt Zapotosky and Adam Goldman
The Washington Post

The apparently coordinated bombings that killed more than 30 people in Belgium are unlikely to be duplicated in the United States, which is separated by an ocean from Islamic extremists fighting in Syria and Iraq and has seen far fewer of its people traveling there, former intelligence and counterterrorism officials said.

America is not immune from terrorist attacks, as December's Islamic State-inspired mass shooting in San Bernardino demonstrated, and its transit systems, particularly city subways, are vulnerable. But the U.S. is not grappling with the same volume of Islamic State recruits as its European peers, and sophisticated plots are far more likely to be ferreted out by law enforcement or neighbors, the officials said.


"In the U.S., for the most part, communities don't radicalize; individuals do," said Seamus Hughes, the deputy director at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University's Center for Cyber & Homeland Security and a former National Counterterrorism Center staffer.

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, claimed responsibility for the Brussels attacks - a series of bombings at the airport and a metro station. The incident sparked security fears across the globe, with police in Paris, London, Washington and elsewhere boosting patrols. The bombing followed earlier Islamic State assaults in France, Turkey and Tunisia, among other places

According to a report from The Soufan Group, a research and intelligence service, 470 people from Belgium had traveled to Syria as of October 2015. That figure, officials said, represents the highest per capita number of foreign fighters for any country.

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-american-attack-vulnerabllity-20160322-story.html

[MisterP]

1. after SB I'd say "moderate-low": most of the (FBI-midwifed) plots go for Times Square

for Chattanooga, Boston, and SB they attackers each barely went 2 miles from their house

[MariaThinks]

2. we've already been attacked- many times

[ladjf]

3. An attack such as the one in Belgium could happen in any big city airport. nt

[UMTerp01]

4. I'd say pretty damn vulnerable

Just like in Brussels, the initial entry ways into all of our airports are soft targets. You don't hit the security screens until you've checked in and are going further inside the terminal. So something like that could easily happen at any airport here in the US. Same thing for metro stations. I'm shocked there hasn't been a suicide bomber on one yet, or on a bus. Its pretty scary. This was obviously well coordinated but its the lone wolf attackers like San Bernardino that also worry me because you just never know.