( CNN ) -- There are many lessons to be learned from our experiences before and after 9/11 . One lesson is that when you get a wake-up call ... Wake Up ! We received many wake-up calls from Osama bin Laden before 9/11 . February 1993 : The first World Trade Center attack by Ramzi Yousef , Omar Abdul Rahman ( the blind Sheikh ) and its financier , Khalid Sheikh Mohammad . Six people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured . June 1993 : Rahman and others were charged in a plot to bomb New York landmarks including the Lincoln Tunnel , George Washington Bridge and the FBI 's New York office . October 1993 : Al Qaeda-trained followers kill 18 and wound 73 U.S. military officers in Mogadishu , Somalia , now known as `` Black Hawk Down . '' August 1998 : The bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania leave 12 Americans and hundreds of others dead . The FBI places bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted list . October 2000 : The bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen kills 17 sailors . September 11 , 2001 : The coordinated attack included four hijacked planes , two of which were flown into each World Trade Center tower and a third into the Pentagon . The fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field when passengers heroically stormed the cockpit . In the summer of 2001 , the declared priorities of the Department of Justice were guns and gangs . An FBI request for hundreds of additional agents , analysts and linguists for its counterterrorism program was rejected and returned on September 10 . Since 9/11 , we have spent trillions of dollars fighting two wars and reorganizing the federal law enforcement and intelligence community . Significant enhancements were made to existing agencies , and the Department of Homeland Security , including the TSA , was created . Are we safer today ? I agree with experts who believe that a large sophisticated and coordinated attack such as 9/11 is extremely unlikely . The decimation of al Qaeda , the killing of bin Laden , the monitoring of the global financial network and international communications among terrorists , greater international sharing of information and public awareness make it nearly impossible to duplicate the scale and scope of the 9/11 plan . The United States has now received `` specific , credible but unconfirmed '' information that one or more vehicles containing explosives may be used for an attack in New York and/or Washington this weekend . This reporting makes no mention of a large scale attack using aircraft . It is considered credible because accurate information has been previously obtained from this source . However , it is unconfirmed because the terrorists have not been identified and the actual attack plan has not been verified . I offer a lesson from history to support my belief that smaller attacks will continue for decades . Although Hitler died in his Berlin bunker in April 1945 , `` Hitlerism '' lives on : . In 1977 , the National Socialist Party of America , a neo-Nazi group , held demonstrations in the Chicago area . `` The Turner Diaries '' by William Pierce was first published in 1978 and is considered the inspiration for the creation of numerous groups and the commission of many crimes . These include the 1984 murder of Jewish radio talk show host Alan Berg and the 1995 attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City . This year , on January 19 , a bomb was placed on the Martin Luther King Day parade route in Spokane , Washington . A man with past ties to a neo-Nazi group , the National Alliance , has pleaded guilty . If these events still occur 66 years after Hitler 's death , what can we expect during the next 66 years following bin Laden 's death ? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Thomas V. Fuentes .
Carlos Fuentes : Part of 9/11 is to pay attention to threats . He says there were numerous warnings of al Qaeda 's danger . He says likelihood of large - scale attacks like 9/11 are slim . He says smaller attacks could continue for decades .