Newsroom America) -- President Barack Obama said Wednesday he was less concerned about a spectacular terrorist attack on the upcoming 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and more worried about attacks that could be carried out by individual radicals.
"The most likely scenario that we have to guard against right now ends up being more of a lone wolf operation than a large, well coordinated terrorist attack," he told CNN during a campaign swing through Iowa on a three-day bus tour that included stops in Minnesota and Missouri.
"We still have to stay on top of it, though. We're never letting our guard now, that's part of our job," he said, adding that the U.S. would remain on "heightened" alert with "extra vigilance" on the anniversary.
Obama was asked about the prospects of a new large-scale terror assault on the anniversary of the attacks that destroyed the twin World Trade Center towers in New York City and damaged the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., as well as retaliation for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May.
The president said U.S. national security officials were "constantly monitoring potential risks," but a stepped-up campaign against al Qaeda around the globe had left the organization largely defensive and on the run.
"The risk is always there, and obviously on a seminal event like the tenth anniversary of 9/11, that makes us more concerned -- it means we've got heightened awareness," said Obama.
However, he added, "the biggest concern we have right now is not the launching of a major terrorist operation -- although that risk is always there.
"The risk that we're especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacres of the sort we saw in Norway recently," he said.
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