Posted on 03/23/2005 11:04:45 AM PST by OESY
* Al Qaeda — which operated as an efficient organ of command and control — has been smashed to pieces. Just two of its former top 20 leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, are believed to be still alive and free — and those two are in hiding, seemingly without regular organizational contact with Islamist cells anywhere in the world.
Since December 2001, the two have managed to send a total of six authenticated messages from their hideouts....
* Targeted governments have begun to fight back.
In Pakistan, more than 13,000 schools suspected of propagating extremist ideas have been shut in the past two years. In Yemen, the number of such schools to be shut is around 24,000....
* The movement is also finding it increasingly difficult to attract new recruits, especially within the Muslim world. Even in Western Europe (where Muslim communities still represent fertile recruiting ground), the number of "volunteers" peaked in the fall of 2003 and has been falling since.
One big problem is that the number of places where Islamists can hide in safety is dwindling....
* For the first time in two decades, the movement is also beginning to face fund-raising difficulties. The generous donations that indirectly came from various regional countries have stopped, while scores of bank accounts operated by the militants have been frozen.
A total of 103 charities suspected of raising funds for terror have been shut or otherwise neutralized in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Kuwait alone. Some businessmen still manage to get funds to various groups, often via third parties. But these channels are also being detected and shut one by one....
* The Islamist terror movement has suffered another disappointment — the dashing of its hopes for an international anti-American front....
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
My pleasure. :')
"In Yemen, the number of such schools to be shut is around 24,000."
CIA World Factbook -- Yemen's population is 19,349,881, with a 50 per cent literacy rate (70 among men, of course, Moslem country).
Your remarks below are an excellent summary of what has happened to Islamofascist Terrorism around the world since 9/11.
"Worldwide terrorism really WAS state sponsored, despite the baloney pedaled by the MSM about its grassroots origins Palestine, aggressive American policies, etc."
"By changing the political balance in the Middle East, all the players have had to fall into line. Governments have come to see A.Q. and extremism as a liability. They pulled the plug on all the behind the scene's support they were providing and Viola'!!! The swamp is suddenly draining faster than anyone ever imagined."
"When, oh when, will the MSM notice that the world is changing faster, and becoming a safer freer place under GW's steadfast, unflinching, uncompromising leadership?"
To answer your question at the end. Never! Please note my tagline.
Yemen is the only Gulf nation that can't rely upon a steady stream of income generated by deposits of fossil fuels, so I'm not surprised that people there would flock to schools that defray the costs of a completley free education, no matter how dubious its value may be.
And guess who's paying the schools' bills? :')
Most welcome. Yes we will. And we'll find out about the captures weeks after they happen--to allow ME allies to have asked some questions after we have finished asking them. ;^)
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