Experts: U.S. Likely to Be Hit Again.

(From AP Online)

Byline: LARA JAKES JORDAN

The threat of terrorism against the United States remains chillingly lethal five years after 9/11, and officials predict another massive attack is not a matter of if _ but when.

Despite a government overhaul and more than $250 billion spent to bolster security on airlines, at borders and in seaports, few doubt al-Qaida's intent to strike the U.S. again. That the nation hasn't been hit since Sept. 11, 2001, may say as much about terrorists' patience as it does about steps taken to stop them.

"I know of nobody in the intelligence field who doesn't believe there will be another attack," said Thomas Kean, former New Jersey governor and Republican chair of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the government's security missteps leading up to the 2001 hijackings.

"There's going to be another attack," Kean said. "They just can't tell you when."

In a new age of rapid and widespread ID checks, locked and bulletproof cockpit doors in airliners, armed pilots, tracking foreigners' visas and monitoring Muslim and Arab communities, few expect a precise repeat of the plot that used airline hijackings to bring down big buildings.