Time has a more extensive excerpt from an upcoming book, dealing in part with a planned gas attack on the NYC subway system.
It's compelling reading. The excerpt is also laced with an anti-Saudi feel. I mention that as there is a greater political context to the writing, obviously done from gathering information through leaks, apparently from the CIA. How accurate it is, one can only guess. Still, it's chilling.
It points out an operative cell with Saudi connections currently existent within the US - at least as far as one knows from reading the excerpt. And it would appear to be an independent cell, loyal to al-Qaeda, but not tied tightly into any known existing networked command structure.
If nothing else, hopefully the book will help more people to start taking the GWOT seriously by revealing what a dangerous world it is out there. It also suggests that al-Qaeda altered its objectives to a certain extent in 2003 and was looking to overthrow the government of Saudi Arabia. That does coincide with increased violence there, including an attempted attack of the oil fields.
The problem with the excerpt is that it's a dated view of the war on terror, though perhaps the best we're likely to get. Lastly, it also points out the critical nature of the NSA surveillance program. Without such programs, we'd likely never learn much of anything at all about terrorist operations.
As to an outing of an intel source, I doubt that. More likely, said source has been killed, or discarded. Besides, the article states there are a few. If we're lucky, it'll send a signal to al-Qaeda that they can't always trust their own - helping to build more distrust inside the organization. Most large criminal rings eventually have to be taken down from the inside. And creating, or driving wedges where one can, never hurts.
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