What? U.S. Warns Of Al Qaeda Threat This Summer (washingtonpost.com):

That information dovetails with other intelligence 'chatter' suggesting that al Qaeda operatives are pleased with the change in government resulting from the March 11 terrorist bombings in Spain and may want to affect elections in the United States and other countries.

'They saw that an attack of that nature can have economic and political consequences and have some impact on the electoral process,' said one federal official with access to counterterrorism intelligence.

How does this make sense? Were Al-Q paying any attention to the results of the first attack? Bush's approval rating was 90% immediately after, even tho he'd done nothing but fly to Omaha and look scared. Mayor Giuliani was more presidential and the country STILL rallied behind him. You try to influence elections Spain-style and Bush'll win in a landslide.

As to attacks having economic and political consequences...If they couldn't get this lesson from 9/11/01 and had to get it from 3/11/04, well...uh...clue phone?

Trying to think of this more seriously and in context of the Fantasy Ideology article (which I still haven't reread, so help me out here), it seems that these analyses of al-qaeda's motives mean that we still misunderstand them. The reason this analysis makes no sense is because it's assuming that Al-Qaeda think like we do.
¶ 10:31 AM