Showing posts with label terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terrorism. Show all posts
  • Terrorism on the Cheap 9/11 was the most devastating terrorist attack in living history. Saturday's attack on Glasgow airport was not. In fact, as time progresses, it seems al-Qa'eda's ability to strike at the heart of the Decadent Imperialistic Western World is getting more and more eroded.

    I think security has a lot to say for this. The last six years have seen an explosion in intelligence. There's now one CCTV camera in the UK for every 14 residents. You can't enter the United States without your biometric data getting whipped around the FBI, CIA and BCIS computers.

    Al-Qa'eda's ability to organise and enable large scale terrorist bombings, like 9/11 or the Madrid attacks, has been fatally compromised by American and British security services.

    But wiping out al-Qa'eda's organisational ability hasn't wiped out the terrorist attacks in Britain. In fact, it's just highlighted the danger Islamic Fundamentalism poses. Unlike the IRA - or perhaps any terrorist organisation in recent history - the fundamentalists are capable of operating entirely independently.

    The car bombs found in London and the SUV which plowed into Glasgow Airport were home made. Simply cars stuffed with ineffective explosives, nails, screws and propane canisters. The kind of weapons blokes like me could have made.

    And that's the whole point. The lack of a cohesive organisational structure has not made the Islamic Fundamentalists any less dangerous. Now, it's small groups of determined men and women (many of whom were born and raised in England) making the spontaneous decision to attack when and where they can. This will make any future attacks in England very unpredictable and dangerous.

    Because the minority of Islamic fundamentalists blend in seamlessly with the majority of peaceful British Muslims, it's almost impossible to keep track of them. It creates more and more disparity between the Muslim population and the rest of an increasingly suspicious Britain.

    This will make the lives of Britain's peaceful Muslims more and more difficult and, inevitably, that will make the ambitions of the al-Qa'eda taskmasters easier.

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  • Terror Sadly, growing up in Britain during 'the troubles,' my generation is no stranger to terrorism.

    Back in the day, it was a regular occurrence to see news reports of bombs going off in shopping centres or city streets. The IRA had a pretty good structure behind it - murdering civilians over in the UK, while simultaneously presenting a whiter-than-white facade to their American financial backers.

    It's still a common misconception in New York that the IRA never targeted non-military targets. If only that had been true.

    But if 9/11 had any benefit - which of course it didn't - it was in ending the IRA's reign of murder and terror. Now that America had been introduced to the realities of terrorism, it was no longer a legitimate political tool. New Yorkers who might once have slipped five bucks into a tin to support 'the boys back home' had woken up to what their money was paying for.

    Sadly, as the events of the last few days have reminded us, the end of the IRA has not led to an end to terrorism in Britain. True Islamic Fundamentalism - the stuff behind murder and mayhem for decades in the Middle East - has arrived in force in the UK. While the methods, organisation and objectives of the new millenium's terrorists may be different - the consequences seem to be the same.

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  • Giving Terrorists Exactly What They Want Spain on edge as Madrid train bomb trial begins
    Thursday February 15, 07:29 AM

    MADRID (Reuters) - Twenty-nine people go on trial in Spain on Thursday charged over the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people, and triggered the fall of the government and the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq. Full story here.

    There's that old saying: "We don't negotiate with terrorists."

    That's because terrorism normally has an aim, and if you capitulate, terrorists realise than violence is a legitimate means to achieve their ambitions.

    The March 2003 bombings in Spain were an unmitigated disaster as far as the War on Terror went. 191 people were killed and more than 2,000 wounded when Muslim terrorists blew up satchel bombs on the rush hour metro system.

    As a result, the Spanish people protested, the right-wing government fell and the Spanish army was withdrawn from the Iraq war.

    Al Queda learned an important lesson. Violence gets results in Spain.

    As is being revealed in the court case in Madrid, the 2003 bombings were a result of Osama Bin Laden's call his followers to strike at Spain, for it's role in the Iraq war. The fact that the bombings led directly to a withdrawal of Spanish troops makes Al Queda's cowardly strike nothing short of a stunning victory.

    It's disappointing, but understandable. In the face of such a brutal terrorist attack, I can understand the Spanish people being deeply wary of their role in the Iraq war. But by withdrawing, they folded to Al Queda's bullying and confirmed to the terrorists that their violent tactics worked.

    Thanks to Spanish people's reaction, Al Queda now knows that terror attacks in Europe are an effective means to achieve their goals. God help us all.

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