Koran burning and WMD don't mix.

“Assessing the Terrorist Threat”, a report released today summarized by it’s authors and the co-chairs of the 9-11 Commission states “Threats are measured by intent and capabilities. Al-Qaeda continues to hope to inflict mass-casualty attacks in the United States. Indeed, al-Qaeda leaders have said since 9/11 that the U.S. is owed millions of deaths because of its supposed crimes against Islam. However, the group’s capabilities to implement such a large-scale attack are currently far less formidable than they were nine years ago or indeed at any time since.”
http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20100910_7168.php
http://www.bipartisanpolicy.org/sites/default/files/Final%20NSPG%20Threat%20Assessment%20Report%20Sept%202010%20report%20w%20cover.pdf

Their analysis stands in stark contrast to another report detailing the growing risk from the increasing ease and affordability of creating and abusing synthetic pathogens which is matched with an apparent decreasing capacity to control such likelihood of abuse.
http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20100910_5762.php

It appears warnings from biology experts are trumped by political wishful thinking. The Al Qaeda threat has certainly morphed into a more ubiquitous animal but given its mission and determination that doesn’t mean it won’t continue to morph, or has stopped its quest for WMD or weapons of mass disruption.

We quickly forget that Al Qaeda isn’t trying to destroy us literally. They hope to break us economically and divide us politically. It appears we are heading down this path in spite of Al Qaeda, but even a failed bio-terror effort by Al Qaeda or any affiliate will spur more federal spending, expensive regulation, privacy intrusions, lethal overreaction and ultimately political division.

The ultimate answer is dealing with them as the mass murderers they really are. Waging war against them only raises them to ‘warrior’ status…while creating more killers with each collateral damage victim from our ‘war’ related actions.

Preemptive wars, assassin drone attacks and Koran burnings only make more enemies. We need more friends in far away places (and now at home) willing to help us catch these mass murderers…not join them.