Our friends the French. Really.

Why hasn't al Qaida hit America again? This article gives some well-known answers (al Qaida is known for taking years to plan major attacks; increased vigilence; it's not for lack of trying; they're tied up in Iraq) and provides one new one: the French. Yes, the French.

There have been at least four attempts uncovered in the past two years to strike the U.S., says [Michael Swetnam, CEO of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies], including specific attacks on New York, but the plans were intercepted and the operations preempted. “The last one was a big attempt to strike our financial centers. A year before that, they were putting together a ricin attack. Both attacks were planned and staged from Great Britain,” says Swetnam. Also, adds Redlener, “attacks on American and international schools overseas have been detected in advance and prevented.”
How is that possible, when the CIA’s intelligence-gathering is supposedly in a shambles? Because of good friends in shadowy places. “The French intelligence services have been just phenomenal,” says Swetnam. “We wouldn’t have captured those cells in Great Britain if it wasn’t for the French..."

The reason: Thanks to their colonial past, the French have a better and more established Arabic-speaking 'spy force.'

(Via KesherTalk)