Morning Security Brief: National Security Strategy, Nine-Month Terror Spree, Dutch World Cup Security, & Jihadi at the Border?

♦ The Obama administration will unveil its first national security strategy today. "In a 52-page document that tries to balance the idealism of Mr. Obama’s campaign promises with the realities of his confrontations with a fractious and threatening world over the past 16 months, Mr. Obama describes an American strategy that recognizes limits on how much the United States can spend to shape the globe," reports The New York Times. Georgetown Professor Marc Lynch says the new strategy also handles al Qaeda and jihadism better than the Bush administration. "It places this war within the perspective of broader foreign policy concerns, and warns against overreaction to terrorist provocations -- pointing out, correctly, that al-Qaeda's strategy hopes to trigger such American overreactions, leading to counterproductive political responses and interventions which drain our resources, alienate our friends, and radicalize Muslims around the world."

♦ The United States has seen more attempted terrorist attacks in the last nine months than in "any previous one-year period," according to an unclassified document from the Department of Homeland Security obtained by CNN. Addressed to various law enforcement agencies, the May 21 document warns "we have to operate under the premise that other operatives are in the country and could advance plotting with little or no warning." The document specifically refers to Najibullah Zazi, Faisal Shahzad, and Omar Hammami, an Alabama man now fighting in Somalia, as the new face of the threat.

♦ Dutch security officials still believe the Dutch World Cup team and its fans are terrorist targets as the competition draws near. "Dutch citizens are considered potential targets in part due to an anti-Islam film made by right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders," reports The Associated Press. "Similarly, Danes have been considered at risk due to the publication of cartoons featuring Islam's prophet Mohammed." The fear of attack were heightened after a Saudi man was arrested in Iraq with plans to attack the Dutch team and its fans, although an Interpol report released recently said the plot was a "bluff."

♦ The Department of Homeland Security has issued an alert to Texas law enforcement to be on the lookout for a Somali Islamist revolutionary who may try and illegally cross into the United States from Mexico. "The DHS alert was issued to police and sheriff’s deputies in Houston, asking them to keep their eyes open for a Somali man named Mohamed Ali who is believed to be in Mexico preparing to make the illegal crossing into Texas," reports FOX News. "Officials believe Ali has ties to Al Shabaab, a Somali terrorist organization aligned with Al Qaeda, said Joan Neuhaus Schaan, the homeland security and terrorism fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute, who has seen the alert."