Beware of the enemy within

Such was the profound effect of the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that it changed many aspects of our lives, especially the way we travel. The attack earned Osama bin Laden instant notoriety and made Al-Qaida synonymous with terrorism. Governments around the world responded with a "global war on terror" led by the United States, and counter-terrorism was propelled to the top of the agenda of many security agencies.

Ten years on, as we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11 there appears to have been major successes in the war against terrorism. Most significantly, Osama bin Laden was hunted down and killed by US special forces on May 1 this year, and the US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has declared that the US was "within reach of strategically defeating Al-Qaida".

While the death of bin Laden cannot be dismissed as an insignificant event, a close examination of terrorist incidents in the past decade suggests that the terrorist threat has evolved beyond Al-Qaida and bin Laden both. Terrorism experts such as Marc Sageman have labeled this trend as the "leaderless jihad", which in essence comprises homegrown and self-radicalized individuals who resort or are committed to terrorism without being actually recruited by Al-Qaida or other established terrorist groups.