A Hot Summer Awaits?

Is al Qaeda planning a summer offensive of its own against US targets around the world and within the Continental US? A leaked document seems to suggest just that.

A secret U.S. law enforcement report, prepared for the Department of Homeland Security, warns that al Qaeda is planning a terror "spectacular" this summer, according to a senior official with access to the document.

"This is reminiscent of the warnings and intelligence we were getting in the summer of 2001," the official told ABCNews.com.

U.S. officials have kept the information secret, and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said today on ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" that the United States did not have "have any specific credible evidence that there's an attack focused on the United States at this point."

As ABCNews.com reported, U.S. law enforcement officials received intelligence reports two weeks ago warning of terror attacks in Glasgow and Prague, the Czech Republic, against "airport infrastructure and aircraft."

The warnings apparently never reached officials in Scotland, who said this weekend they had received "no advance intelligence" that Glasgow might be a target.

Meanwhile, US forces in Iraq have captured a major Hizbullah figure in Iraq. And he's a major figure too:

A top special operations officer from Lebanon's Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah has been captured in Iraq, where U.S. officials say he played a key role in a January attack that killed five Americans.

Ali Mussa Daqduq, an explosives expert, was captured in March in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, where he was helping train and lead Shiite militias fighting coalition troops, U.S. intelligence officials told CNN.

Daqduq pretended to be deaf and mute when captured, and his identity was not known for weeks, the officials said.

Once uncovered, however, they said he began to talk, and they now believe he played a crucial role in the January 20 attack in Karbala. Video Watch Michael Ware's report on Daqduq »

Hezbollah fought Israeli troops in a month-long war in southern Lebanon in 2006, a conflict sparked by a cross-border raid in which Hezbollah fighters killed three Israeli soldiers and took two others captive. The conflict ended with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, and the Israeli soldiers remained captive when the fighting ended.

Intelligence officials say Daqduq is one of Hezbollah's top special operations commanders, an expert in the use of roadside bombs. The Americans say he, along with the Iraqi militia commanders he worked with, has admitted working with Iran's elite Quds Force special operations unit.

U.S. commanders have said for months that Iraqi militants have been receiving weapons and training from members of the Quds Force, an element of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Washington has demanded the Iranian government stop the flow of arms and militants across its border -- which, along with the diplomatic standoff over Iran's nuclear fuel program, has raised fears of a wider war in the region.

Hizbullah is part and parcel of Iran's proxy forces in the region. It's yet another sign that this is going to be a very long and hot summer. The Iranians are pushing their agenda in the region very hard, and taking Daqduq is going to put a crimp in Iran's plans.

It will be interesting to see what intel is gleaned from him, and that intel will definitely be of interest not only to the US and Iraqis, but the Israelis and Lebanese. Hizbullah may be looking to restart their conflict against Israel this summer, in conjunction with an uptick in violence in Iraq and in the West Bank and Gaza - a multifront offensive against the West.

With the West divided over how to proceed, the Iranians are looking to take advantage of the situation by every means necessary.

It's also rather rich that Venezuela and Iran would be plotting together to limit what they call imperialism (code words for the US). Both countries are busy wrecking their own economies by nationalizing the oil industry (Venezuela) and rationing gas (Iran). What better way to maintain control over their countries than by trotting out the bogeyman of choice among Leftists - the US (and when that is insufficient, throw in Israel into the bargain).