More good news on the terrorism front, this time from ABC’s Brian Ross, who reports that Umar Abdulmutallab says “more like me” will be coming to the US. Al-Qaeda has launched a new offensive against the US using the international air travel system, and that the US has not completely grasped the significance of the attack on Christmas Day. The British seem to have a better handle on it:

American officials have cause to worry there may be more al Qaeda-trained young men in Yemen planning to bring down American jets.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, charged with the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253, told FBI agents there were more just like him in Yemen who would strike soon.

And in a tape released four days before the attempted destruction of the Detroit-bound Northwest plane, the leader of al Qaeda in Yemen boasted of what was planned for Americans, saying, “We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God.”

The next time, we won’t have the good fortune to have a faulty detonator. AQ missed a chance with NW253, but they now have time to refine their system to work more efficiently. They only have to get it right once, while we have to get it right every single time. We got lucky on Christmas, but that’s all it was — luck.

That’s why Joe Lieberman demanded pre-emptive action against AQ strongholds in Yemen:

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) Sunday said that Yemen could be the ground of America’s next overseas war if Washington does not take preemptive action to root out al-Qaeda interests there.

Lieberman, who helms the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday” that the U.S. will have to take an active approach in Yemen after multiple recent terrorist attacks on the U.S. were linked back to the Middle Eastern nation.

The Connecticut senator said that an administration official told him that “Iraq was yesterday’s war, Afghanistan is today’s war. If we don’t act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow’s war.”

ABC didn’t include Ross’ report in the video on the British response to the warning from Abdulmutallab’s father last month to their webpage, but it’s instructive. Instead of shrugging their shoulders, the Brits immediately added Abdulmutallab to its no-fly list and revoked his visa. That’s what our State Department should have done — and they should be looking at a lot of leads they may have shrugged off over the last few months as well.