Lessons from the Terror Arrests of Americans in Pakistan

By Ryan Mauro

The capture of five Americans with links to al-Qaeda illuminates many challenges of the terror war.

Five Americans from the northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., area have been arrested in Pakistan on their way to committing jihad. The fact that they were caught before they got to hook up with those to-die-for 72 virgins (the ones that, according to one Saudi preacher, are white and have no phlegm, feces, urine, or perhaps most appealingly, menstrual cycles) is itself a success in the War on Terror. In order to capitalize on this success, though, we need to learn several lessons from the episode. [more...]