Wednesday, April 9, 2008

al Qaeda's Magnificent Obsession


Recurrent Themes

Evidence brought out in the April 2008 London trial of the eight Muslim defendents in the thwarted 2006 "Heathrow Plot" demonstrates al Qaeda's relentless obsession with aircraft as a primary target, and their unwavering committment to stage additional attacks similar in scope and design to 9/11.



Lessons not learned

Transposted from Stratfor Newsletter - 9 Apr 08

As we noted after the Heathrow plot came to light, the scheme shared several themes with other thwarted or successful al Qaeda plots, including the choice of aircraft as targets, the notion of multiple, simultaneous strikes and the use of modular improvised explosive devices, which would have been smuggled aboard the aircraft in carry-on luggage. Moreover, whoever was involved in planning the operation shared al Qaeda’s penchant for “thinking big.”

First Reactions to the Heathrow Plot

On August 22, 2006, within two weeks of the first arrests, Daniel Pipes wrote in the New York Sun:


"The airport disruptions following the thwarted London plot prompted much discussion about the need to focus on the source of Islamist terrorism and to profile Muslims. In the words of a Wall Street Journal editorial, 'a return to any kind of normalcy in travel is going to require that airport security do a better job of separating high-risk passengers from unlikely threats.'

This argument is gaining momentum. A recent poll found that 55% of Britons support passenger profiling that takes into account "background or appearance," with only 29% against. Lord Stevens, the former chief of Scotland Yard, has endorsed focusing on young Muslim men. The Guardian reports that 'some EU countries, particularly France and the Netherlands, want to … introduce explicit checks on Muslim travelers.'" http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3890

But then, almost immediately, the Liberal Forces of Inaction intervened:

Racial Profiling: ACLU Definition

"'Racial Profiling' refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.
Another example of racial profiling is the targeting, ongoing since the September 11 th attacks, of Arabs, Muslims and South Asians for detention on minor immigrant violations in the absence of any connection to the attacks on the World Trade Center or the Pentagon.

Law enforcement agent includes a person acting in a policing capacity for public or private purposes. This includes security guards at department stores, airport security agents, police officers, or, more recently, airline pilots who have ordered passengers to disembark from flights, because the passengers' ethnicity aroused the pilots' suspicions."

Of course, it wasn't just the ACLU who came out against the profiling of Muslim men.

Soon the Liberal Forces of Inaction enlisted the aid of various "terrorism experts", who quickly put forth the hypothetical "Little Old Lady" Scenario to support their theories of the inevitable failures inherent in the profiling of Muslim men; a practice, they pointed out, which was ultimately futile, because, hypothetically speaking, once al Qaeda realized what was happening they would simply stop using Muslim men and start using less obvious agents for their operations, such as blond-haired, blue-eyed Nordic types




or little old ladies.





Here, my friends, are the eight defendants in the infamous Heathrow Plot.

They are, you may notice, not fair-haired, blue-eyed Nordic types, and they are definitely not little old ladies. They are (surprise, surprise) all Muslim men.













In point of fact, since the carnage of the Munich Olympics attacks of 1972, all of the terrorist attacks against the West, every single one of them, have been conducted by Muslim Men.

Lessons Learned

We are not living in a theoretical world. We are living in the real world. In this real world these are our enemies:

and this is their primary target:

Can we stop them?

11 comments:

  1. Thank you Findals. However, 'the exception makes the rule'.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thought you might like this article from the Jerusalem Post.

    Right of Reply: I was a terrorist
    By WALID SHOEBAT

    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207649974071&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

    It's apparently better to be a terrorist than a law-abiding citizen. When you are a terrorist, you gain concessions, peace deals and lots of money. After all, the media fully assists terrorists, the government seeks peace deals, the world funds these peace deals and continually requests the release of terrorists.

    It took a lot of courage for this man to turn away from terror, turn away from Islam and join the civilized world.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There is no exception. Nicholls was married to a Philippine Muslim. He went over there to meet with with Ramsy Yusef, previous to that meeting, their test bombs fizzled.

    If you want to stop terrorism, end the existence of Islam! There is no other possible solution.

    ReplyDelete
  4. To have made the word and act of "dicriminating" a soley evil thing is one of the Left's great triumphs. At one time, critical thinking i.e. discrimination with Reason - be it of food choices, soap color, or people - was a sign of intelligence. Now it is simply evil. Another great faculty of human survival is taken away and mankind is that much more vulnerable for it.

    Cheers,

    Charlie

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  6. Ther amazing thong here is that in spite of the Intelligent presentations to Congress by Gen Petraeus and Amb. Crocker is that the DUNDER HEADS ( PC for Elected officilas) in Congress still are oblivious to the fact that IRAQ is the Crucial battelgreound against this type of Assassins who want to do more Harm to US Americans!!!
    What is it going to take to get them out of the slumber?? Brain Transplants??

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Did you know that the vast majority of terrorist plots in Western countries have been foiled thanks to information received from Moslems themselves?"

    Are you able to support that claim with real evidence?

    ReplyDelete
  8. To Duy --
    Your comments are a perfect example of the kind of doublethink that will get us all killed. Despite your best efforts to frame it that way, this issue has nothing whatsoever to do with racism and everything to do with security. Our security.
    You ignore the facts and attempt to counter the logic of the article with those same old tired liberal talking points. And it just won't work anymore.

    You put forth an obviously borrowed opinion as though it were an accepted fact:
    "The problem with profiling is that it adds little or no value to security."
    Unfortunately, this is blatantly false, as evidenced by the unblemished record of El Al security measures -- a subject which I will go into in greater detail in a follow-up article.

    You then go on to warn us:
    "And worst of all, what will happen when you target Moslem communities? What will happen when they feel picked on?" Who the hell cares if the Muslim communities feel picked on? The Muslim communities are lucky to be here. Yet they show their gratitude by managing to be offended from the time they wake up in the morning until the time they go to bed at night -- despite our constant (and woefully misguided) cultural accomodations. And we, the American Public, are getting sick to death of their being offended.

    And then, finally, this:
    "Yes, it is all fun being stupidly right wing. It's really great watching other families send their kids to war for your cultural jihad."
    What a stupid thing to say. Especially without knowing who you are talking to. I am an old veteran and my son is a new veteran(an Army Ranger who fought in Desert Storm). Are you, I wonder, a veteran?

    I left your ludicrous comments up to show our readers the kind of skewered mentalitiy we are up against. I took the trouble to respond to you this once, but I will not engage you further in gentlemanly debate. In my view, those who hinder our ability to fight back successfully against our enemies are enemies themselves. And I do not engage in gentlemanly debate with our enemies.

    ReplyDelete
  9. To Findalis -- You are fast becoming a regular commenter here at Radarsite. Yet I can find no biography or website under your name. I would like to know more about you. If you feel so inclined you may email me from my bio page. However, if you wish to preserve you anonymity, I will of course respect that decision.
    rg

    ReplyDelete
  10. To Roger and anyone else.

    My short bio.

    I use the nom de plume Findalis (old Celtic meaning White Eagle) as my primary pseudonym on-line. One of my secondary pseudonym's is: Mystical Time Traveler.

    I'm in my 50's, Female, Widowed, Mother of 2 grown children. I have a BS from Tel Aviv University in Biology.

    I was born in Queens, NY, raised in Brooklyn and have the accent to prove it.

    I'm a veteran of the US Air Force. I worked as a Translator and Analyst. My theater of expertise was the Middle East. Just an NCO here. No need to salute me.

    I'm currently in semi-retirement, been outsourced once too often.

    I'm neither a conservative nor liberal. I am liberal on some issues and conservative on others. I vote my conscience. But on one issue I am very outspoken:

    The threat of Islamic Fascism and the security of the State of Israel!

    Does this help?

    ReplyDelete
  11. I just knew that you had a fascinating background Findalis -- love that name. Thank you for your kind response and welcome to Radarsite. I hope you continue to be a "regular" here. Your comments are always interesting. And your obvious familiarity with Israel and the Middle East is invaluable to furthering our understanding of these important issues -- which is, after all, what this is all about.
    rg

    ReplyDelete