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There is no question that some of al-Qaeda affiliates pose a serious threat to the United States. Jabhat al-Nusra, an aqi spinoff that has lately blossomed in the bloody fields of Syria’s civil war, is worryingly ascendant among the opposition forces seeking the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad. If a group as radical and as hardened as that one were to acquire some of Syria’s chemical-weapons stockpile or seized power after Assad’s fall, the results might be disastrous. And aqap in Yemen attempted to blow up an American airliner landing in Detroit three years ago, on Christmas Day.