NEW YORK, July 7, 2005
Enemies Among Us
Harry Smith: Terror Attacks Still Come As A Shock
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Play CBS Video Video Injured Recounts Blasts CBS News RAW: An injured man recounted what happened to him during his morning commute when bombs went of in London.
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Video U.S. Security After Attacks U.S. homeland security is heightened after the London terrorist attacks. CBS News' Jim Stewart reports from Washington.
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Injured tube passengers are escorted away from Edgware Road Tube Station in London. (AP)
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Interactive London Blasts Complete coverage of the deadly attacks of July 7, 2005, and the terror scare that followed two weeks later.
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In The Spotlight London Scare Complete Video Coverage: London underground stations evacuated and city put on alert.
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Interactive Global Terror Major terrorist organizations, the FBI's most wanted and facts and photos from recent attacks.
We should know by now that there still are significant numbers of people who hold us, our allies and our way of life in contempt. But prepare as we might and as intellectually girded as we might be, it still comes as shock that terrorists attack -- and attack successfully.
I was in London just a few weeks ago and when I first saw the pictures very early this morning I assumed that London's rickety subway system had malfunctioned. As a news person, I'm wired to expect the worst. Why didn't I think the worst? Somehow, even with the reality of 9/11, the reality of 191 dead in Madrid a year and half ago, the bombs in Bali, we're still not cognizant on a daily basis of the fact that our enemies are among us. We think, perhaps, that because al Queda is on the run. That because Osama bin Laden can no longer run terror camps that the reach of people who hate us is somehow limited.
Well today was proof that that assumption is just false. Al Queda was suspected in the days and months after Madrid and a year later investigators concluded that, in fact, the perpetrators of that heinous act were Moroccans performing very much independently.
Several terrorism experts I spoke with today said that what Madrid showed, and what also may true in London, is terrorists need not wait for orders from a cave in Afghanistan.
We're told we should carry on in as normal a fashion as possible. But, that presumes we're going to be safe. And that's exactly what the people in London thought this morning.
Harry's daily commentary can be heard on many CBS Radio News affiliates across the country.
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