Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘al-qaeda’

Ten years later.

Dozens of terrorist attacks, including Istanbul, Madrid, London, and last week in Marrakech, later.

2,340 coalition casualties in Afghanistan, including 155 Canadians, later.

Thousands of Afghan civilian casualties – too many for any body or organization to properly count – later.

Osama bin Laden is dead, says the President. It’s been almost ten years since the September 11th attacks, and since the world’s largest manhunt was launched for the man responsible. In those ten years, the world has changed so much that it’s almost unrecognizable.

Ten years ago, bin Laden’s death might have actually struck a body blow at the terrorist infrastructure. Today, it will probably make little more than a dent. After all, they’ve had ten years to reorganize and restructure, to recruit and train. Ten years during which Osama was little more than a figurehead, and the network has decentralized. Ten years for other international terror groups to “step up” and grow up.

(Oh, and ten years for the US to invade Iraq, for there to be civil war – and now reconciliation – in the Palestinian territories, for governments to change hands in western nations and for massive rounds of civilian unrest and protest across the middle east. A lot can happen in ten years.)

At best, this announcement will give Obama a temporary bump in the polls as he kicks off his 2012 re-election campaign. At worst, it will make bin Laden into a martyr among his followers and trigger additional attacks. In all likelihood, it will make very little practical difference.

It does feel like the end of an era, in a way.

Under Republican control, the House Intelligence committee may have been stubbornly ignorant. But under Democratic control, it appears that they will be just plain ignorant:

Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas, who incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tapped to head the Intelligence Committee when the Democrats take over in January, failed a quiz of basic questions about al Qaeda and Hezbollah, two of the key terrorist organizations the intelligence community has focused on since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

[ . . . ]

While Stein said Reyes is “not a stupid guy,” his lack of knowledge said it could hamper Reyes’ ability to provide effective oversight of the intelligence community, Stein believes.

“If you don’t have the basics, how do you effectively question the administration?” he asked. “You don’t know who is on first.”

Aside from not knowing the difference between Sunni and Shi’ite, there’s no evidence that Reyes is a bad guy or anything . . . but I’m tempted to apply my basic Bush-rule here: if you can’t pronounce nuclear, you shouldn’t be allowed to have your finger on the button.

The intelligence level of elected members of government – from both parties – is frighteningly low. Is anyone else more than a little scared that these are the people making the big decisions?

Has it really been five years? It seems like just yesterday when I was waking up to the news that a plane had struck the World Trade Center.

How could any of us have known, at that moment, that life would forever be defined as “before” and “after” that moment? How could we have realized the impact that this event would have?

Now, five years later, the world certainly isn’t any safer. Maybe we’ve opened our eyes to what we were willfully ignoring before. Maybe things have really gotten a whole lot worse. Maybe it’s both. In any case, terrorism has become part of our collective language, part of the daily discourse, an almost-expected part of the news cycle. And I look around and see a war that has no end in sight and no marked progress being made.

This is the world we live in now. A world that is much less innocent, much less naive. A world filled with scary things. Will Iran get nuclear weapons and launch them at Israel or the West? Will North Korea go renegade? Where in the world will Al-Qua’eda strike next? What major disaster will befall us next?

But I also see a world with so much potential, a world where extraordinary people are accomplishing amazing things every day. A world worth fighting for.

After five years, maybe it is finally appropriate to put aside this chapter of mourning and focus on our collective potential?

Al-Qaeda is whining because it thinks that the Shiite groups are getting to have all the fun:

The statement does, however, represent the seething resentment of Sunni al-Qaeda, directed at what it sees as an attempted Shiite takeover of the jihad campaign in the Middle East.

In the speech, Rahman espoused anti-Semitic conspiracy theories inspired by the Russian forgery, the protocols of the elders of Zion: “We know very well from our history that the Jews target to occupy Lebanon, Syria and even the north of the Arabian peninsula even up to Iraq to the river of Furaat (Euphrates).”

However, he then turns his wrath to Hizbullah, Iran, and Syria, calling them “infidel entities,” and arguing that they are preventing Sunni jihadis from attacking Israel.

This pissing contest between Sunni and Shiite extremist groups is nothing new. It’s a battle of one-upmanship, with the barometer being which side can attack Israel the most. Which really makes me wish they’d cut out the middleman and just start attacking each other already.

Coordinated terrorist attacks in Sharm-el-Shiekh, Egypt yesterday killed at least 83 people and injured hundreds more:

At least 83 people were killed and 200 injured when car bombs ripped through shopping and hotel areas in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday in the worst attack in Egypt since 1981.

Shaken European tourists spoke of mass panic and hysteria as people fled the carnage in the early hours, with bodies strewn across the roads, people screaming and sirens wailing.

The regional governor said two car bombs and possibly a suitcase bomb had rocked the resort, popular with divers and European holidaymakers, as well as diplomats who have convened world summits. Egypt has called it “the city of peace.”

One blast tore the front off the Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Naama Bay, the site of most of the resort’s luxury hotels. People were feared trapped in the rubble of the lobby.

A car broke into the hotel compound and exploded in front of the building, South Sinai Governor Mustafa Afifi said.

There are reports of “claims of responsibility” from an Al-Quaeda linked group. The stated motive/excuse was “retaliation for crimes against Muslims”.

This is truly sickening. But what I really can’t help but wonder is how long it will take for someone to blame even this on the U.S. and Israel, somehow.

Londoners barely had time to celebrate being awarded the 2012 Olympics before terror struck this morning:

Two people have been killed and scores have been injured after three blasts on the Underground network and another on a double-decker bus in London. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was “reasonably clear” there had been a series of terrorist attacks.

He said it was “particularly barbaric” that it was timed to coincide with the G8 summit. He is returning to London.

An Islamist website has posted a statement – purportedly from al-Qaeda – claiming it was behind the attacks.

There’s chaos right now and details are sketchy. There seems to be at least six separate attacks within minutes of each other, all in Central London on major buses or tube stations. It’s looking like the numbers of those dead or injured from the attacks is going to rise quickly as details emerge.

This is truly horrifying. Sadly it’s not nearly as shocking anymore as 9/11 was four years ago. The first priority will have to be treating the victims and assessing the damage. But Tony Blair is not likely to back down in the face of terror.

It’s too easy and hyperbolic to call this England’s 9/11, though I’m sure we’ll be hearing some of that shortly as well.

Update: CNN is now reporting at least 40 people dead and hundreds injured. These numbers are sadly sure to climb in the course of the day.

This will be the story everywhere today, without a doubt.

Three bombings in the Philippines have killed 11 people so far and wounded at least 130:

Security forces quickly blamed Abu Sayyaf, a small Muslim rebel group associated with al Qaeda, for the improvised bomb in General Santos and a grenade attack at a bus terminal in Davao that killed a young boy.

In Manila, six people were killed in an explosion on a bus at a commuter terminal near the crowded Glorietta mall, major hotels and the nation’s financial and diplomatic core.

“There’s a strong possibility the attacks could all be linked,” said Norberto Gonzales, the national security adviser.

“They have admitted two. We will know more later.”

Also, a car bomb in Lebanon killed at least 13 people, including former Lebanese Prime Minister (and presumptive target) Rafik al-Hariri:

A previously unknown Islamist group said in a videotape aired by Al Jazeera television that it carried out the attack because of Hariri’s support for the Saudi government. The claim could not be confirmed.

Hariri had remained politically influential since his resignation and recently joined opposition calls for Syrian troops to quit Lebanon in the run-up to a May general election.

Widespread speculation that the Syrians are involved cannot yet be confirmed, but I wouldn’t be too surprised. There’s a long tradition among terrorist governments to dissociate themselves with the bands of terrorists that they directly fund and control.

And I will never stop wondering why there aren’t massive international “end the occupation” rallies against Syria’s occupation of Lebanon.

Bin Laden Accuses Bush of Deceiving Americans:

Osama bin Laden accused President Bush of deceiving the American people and said the Sept. 11 attacks would not have been so severe if the president had been alert.

This is too funny to not be an elaborate spoof. Especially since I still believe Bin Laden’s been dead for two years. Some lookalike probably wondered if Reuters would be fooled and report this verbatim.

In any case, I bet in next week’s Onion, we’ll see the logical comeback:

Bush Accuses Bin Laden of Attacking Americans.

Organizers fear terrorist attacks on upcoming Al-Quaeda convention

Fears of possible terrorist attacks have led organizers of the Sept. 27-30 al-Qaeda International Convention to take unprecedented security measures, sources reported Monday.

“There are concerns about a possible attack, and we are responding by heightening security,” al-Qaeda chairman and convention organizer Khalil al-Hamada said. “This year’s convention will see longer lines and more comprehensive searches, and prospective martyrs will have difficulty gaining a private audience with Ayman al-Zawahiri. But, as freedom-haters who have always stood for the disruption and overthrow of the West, we will not allow terror to blunt our resolve or dictate our message.”

I sure as hell hope not. I hope that Canadian journalist Scott Taylor was released without any promises by Canada. I hope that someone in Al Qua’eda just decided to release him, for some strange unexplained reason.

But this sounds very fishy:

“Turkish intelligence people say I’m the only Westerner ever released by the Al-Qaeda group and they can’t understand why,” he told the daily.

In Ottawa, the foreign affairs ministry said little about the story. A spokesman said Taylor was received late Monday at the Canadian embassy in Ankara. “I will not tell you anything more,” the spokesman, Reynald Doiron, told AFP.

I know that the Canadian policy has been to try to stay out of the line of fire as much as possible, in hopes that we won’t become a target. And as far as I can tell, nobody’s suggesting that Taylor’s release was anything other than spontaneous.

I hope that’s the end of the story. For all our sakes.