Your speculation makes sense to me. I would think a multi-country attack would make the wacky jihadists quite pleased. The question is could they pull it off. I believe they have the manpower and means to do it but it would require a big dose of luck. If one person/cell got busted, and talked, that could cause the entire operation to fall like dominoes. IF (big if) this is the scenario, I hope the folks that make the bad guys talk are not politically correct. Politically correct and war do not go together.
“If one person/cell got busted, and talked, that could cause the entire operation to fall like dominoes.”
SPECULATION-OPINION: Maybe not. If all of the global jihadists are waiting for a signal, it could be that they do not know about the other cells and this could be a problem.
However, jihadis do talk — one way or the other; unless they are dead, I suppose.
Operational security is key to a multi target attack. The more targets and the more wide spread, the greater the communications necessary to pull off the necessary coordination. This increases the profile of the cell(s) involved and increases the potential for detection. I think that AQ et.al. is still too scared of our capabilities to intercept communications to risk such a wide ranging attack.