Did Osama Shoot His Wad?

Everyone, it seems, has commented on how well our Homeland Security apparatus has worked, that there have been no terrorist attacks in the U.S. since 9/11.
They seem to have forgotten that seven years had passed between the first World Trade Center bombing and the second (9/11).
A point should be made, the second attack was done by a respectable number of individuals who were well educated and had lived for some time in the West. Another point to make; the "right" combination of suicidal tendencies, intelligence, and sociopathic traits, may be a hard combination to find in the future recruitment of terrorists.
I can see the newspaper ad now--"wanted: individuals who want to commit suicide in a spectacular fashion, can speak English, familiar with American culture, can fly a Boeing 727 or 747 airplane, and are willing to kill a large number of infidels".
Granted Osama's Al Qaeda has found plenty of recruits willing to blow themselves up, but they have been for the most part young and relatively uneducated Jihadists that have a goal of driving an invader from what they consider their holy land. These would be unsuitable for the more sophisticated operations required in the U.S. They would stand out like a "sore-thumb" now that we are aware of the "potential" danger.
So patting ourselves on the back for a job "well-done" is a little premature--we don't know what is happening behind the scenes or what the real reasons for not being attacked are. It is very likely that Osama expended his "resources", having had only one good "bullet" to expend.
Al Qaeda can be compared to a cancerous tumor that has been carelessly removed, but before its removal it had spread "cells" throughout the body, which in time will develop into tumors. The "surgeons" are complimenting themselves on how well the surgery went, however, until the remedy is found, we will be plagued by tumors.
While this is going on we continue to try out complex treatments, rather than cures, that allays our fears; treatments that are as expensive as they are ineffectual; more like slapping a Band-Aid on a major wound.
One "Band-Aid" is field intelligence; i.e., spies on the ground. Spies against a country are one thing, a country is a known targetable target, but spies against a cultural movement is quite something else.
Besides the problem of numbers of spies needed to cover all the trouble spots in the world, finding the right people for the job is an almost impossible task.
The problem is that the "war" is a clash of cultures (with religion being a focal point) not merely a difference in political philosophies. It is not tyranny against Democracy as is often expressed.
Finding intelligence agents that can speak idiomatic Arabic (and other ME languages), knows ME culture and religion, and can travel freely within the targeted Arabic groups (and others), to ferret out their secrets is asking the near impossible. We've tried to compensate by going high tech without a great lot of success.
Recently the U.S. opened up its Terrorist Command Center; it looks appropriately high tech and efficient with all the latest gadgets, which I'm sure will do a good job of collecting, synthesizing, and forwarding any intelligence information that comes in. The problem however is getting the needed and pertinent information; if you don't have agents on the ground, gleaning information from the bad-guys, you really don't have the intelligence needed to process and forward. You don't have the details about brewing plots; you don't know who your enemies are, and where they are. Tapping phones may give up some information, but all you have in most cases are bits and pieces, without history or context. Then you have the problem of interpreters. This lack of detail and specifics makes a high tech Terrorist Command Center more like a "virtual reality" palace; imposing but impotent.
Money works well in espionage but it has failed in the case of Osama bin Laden. The "Coalition" has had a $25 million bounty on both Osama and his partner Al Zarqawi for a number of years now yet no one has stepped forward to claim the reward. Greed is one of the strongest drives in man, yet it hasn't been strong enough to overcome loyalty to cause and persons.
The former CIA Director Tenet said that the U.S. would need at least five years to bring up it's intelligence capabilities to where they need to be. He was more than likely speaking about diplomatic and military intelligence, rather than the more critically needed "field" agents; i.e. spies on the ground, because it will take many more years than that to be where we should be; if it is an attainable goal.
Terrorists, who are groups of tight-knit zealots, are almost impossible to find, and even harder to infiltrate. Look at how difficult it has been to find ELF members in the U.S.; then look at the 1.3 billion Muslims world-wide. The nearly insurmountable task of surveilling them doesn't mean you don't try, but the major successes will come from "friendly" countries, who live and deal with the terrorists on a day to day basis; i.e., Israel, Pakistan, Syria, Libya, France, etc. Our "success" will come from fostering cooperation with these countries, rather than from our own field efforts. (To be continued)