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Source: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/isil-terrorist-frenemies-114342.html
Both Al-Qaeda and Islamic State Threaten the West
(Politico) Matthew Levitt - Organized terror attacks are still being planned against the West; the head of Britain's MI-5 noted that three plots targeting the UK alone were thwarted in the last months, and well over 30 since the 7/7 attacks. But as recent attacks in Ottawa, Montreal and Sydney make clear, one of the most pressing threats now comes from local individuals or cells working on their own with little more than inspiration from formal groups like al-Qaeda or ISIL. Such attacks may be less spectacular, but they are also more difficult to identify and disrupt. The writer is the Director of the Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.