CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips writes: “According to reports . . . al Qaeda affiliated groups have been planning Mumbai-style commando attacks in western Europe — and only [increased] strikes using unmanned U.S. drones in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan have derailed those attacks by targeting the terror cells which have been planning them.” He continues.

But others in the security establishment are wondering . . . whether [instead] the new alleged threat is being used as a cover for a drone offensive in Pakistan. [After all] Germany’s interior minister said Wednesday that there are “no concrete pointers to imminent attacks in Germany. . . . Meanwhile, a well-informed British source went so far as to [told] CBS News he’s been told by law enforcement officials that the reports of a foiled plot are, “a load of old rubbish which have been planted to justify the increased drone attacks taking place in the tribal areas” of Pakistan.

Do such tactics strike Focal Pointers as something the Obama administration was reject as too Bush-like? Or is it still operating from the old playbook that Bush & Co. left lying around the Oval Office?