Must read: a two-part article from the Observer on terrorist cells operating in Europe (part one, part two). The most explosive revelation is that US intelligence agents had Mohammed Atta under surveillance in Hamburg last year because he was buying chemicals for explosives and biological warfare. The article also further confirms my suspicions that these extremist cells are cults. They prey upon vulnerable people, often far from home, and indoctrinate them in an extreme, anti-Western form of Islam. They’re then sent to terrorist boot camps and fully brainwashed, and finally are put back in circulation to carry out attacks and recruit new members.