Sleeper Cells Waiting To Strike?

Latest Arrests In California Raise Speculations About U.S. Operatives

(CBS/AP)  A terrorism investigation in the quiet farming town of Lodi, Calif., has led to the arrests of a father and son who said he trained at an al Qaeda camp in Pakistan and planned to attack U.S. hospitals and supermarkets, authorities said.

Federal investigators believe a number of people committed to al Qaeda have been operating in and around Lodi, a wine-growing region about 30 miles south of Sacramento, FBI Agent Keith Slotter said Wednesday. He would not elaborate.

Slotter added that investigators did not have information about any specific plans for an attack, and the father and son were charged only with lying to federal agents about the son's training at the al Qaeda camp. Two local Muslim leaders also have been detained on immigration violations.

The arrests in California are just the latest in a series of arrests of suspected terrorists who are U.S. citizens. They raise the possibility that there are terrorist sleeper cells in this country who are planning new attacks, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr.

Former FBI analyst Matthew Levitt tells CBS News some kind of attack on the homeland is inevitable. Intelligence analysts question whether al Qaeda still has the capability to pull off a major assault like 9/11.

"There's no question that there are al Qaeda operatives in this country," says Levitt

But, the arrests of the California men suggest al Qaeda may attack whatever it can, including so called "soft targets" like supermarkets, hospitals, shopping malls, and schools. Targets that are numerous and impossible to protect.

"The camp at which this individual trained apparently is tied to core al Qaeda, and that suggests that they are willing to change their modus operandi to conduct less spectacular attacks in the United States," Levitt tells Orr.

Al Qaeda's method of operation has changed since Sept. 11 and the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, says CBS News Consultant Randall Larsen, who heads the Institute for Homeland Security, and more like the operations in Bali and Madrid more recently.