Frankly, I'm surprised we haven't seen more of this type of attack.

1. Amateurs are sometimes successful. Please don't write them off out of hand.

2. AQ has varying levels of influence on operations:
-- Those that are centrally planned by the A team
-- Those that are "nominated" from the field and then get support ($$, planning assistance, etc) from higher up
-- And those carried out by copycat/wannabes

3. We win by good police work and rule of law, even in the intelligence work that goes into prevention. It appears (obvious to me) that NSY/MI5 were onto some of this plot, but couldn't wrap it up before hand as they have some of the other recent attempts. If we sacrifice our freedoms and way of life in the name of security, the bad guys win.

4. The good news is that both the US and UK have decent LE and judicial systems. Both societies are very resilient.