Posted on 12/03/2005 7:37:00 AM PST by Valin
Lessons of a Belgian Womans suicide-attack in Iraq So Murielle Degauque is "the latest European, and the first woman, to join the lengthening list of bombers," in Iraq, according to the (London) Independent. Her bomb attack killed only herself, but her trajectory from working-class Belgian to Islamist suicide-bomber deserves a closer look, partly because what her life portends about Europes future and partly because it provides still more evidence that racial profiling ("search all Arab males") will not stop terrorist attacks. Lets take the last one first. In my new book, Disinformation, I devote a chapter to debunking the idea focussing on searching all Muslims or Arab males or any particular profile will defeat hijackings and bombings. Instead, radical groups simply recruit people who do not fit the profile. French prisoners, white Australian hotheads, Berkeley, Calif.-converts, Indonesian students and Filipinas married to Arab men have all been recruited to al Qaeda, the Taliban or other Islamist terror outfits. If Ms. Degauque brought her bomb into an American airport instead of against an American patrol in Iraq, she would not have seemed suspicious. When you are looking for Arab males, you tend to ignore Belgian females. It makes more sense to profile on the basis of documented relationships (sharing a bank account with a known terrorist, et cetera), than on a clutch of skin-deep categories.
Now what does Ms. Degauque transformation from party animal to terrorist teach us? One, the riots in France and Belgium are just the beginning. As Europe increasingly becomes a recruiting ground for terrorists, the EU should expect some attacks on their continent. Two, Belgian intelligence is not very effective in tracking radicals in their midst. Remember that the two terrorists (and one of their wives) who used a bomb-rigged camera to kill anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massoud on Sept. 9, 2001 carried Belgian passports. Belgian intel does not seem to have stepped up its efforts in the past four years. Paul Belein wrote in the (London) Spectator about the laissez-faire attitude at Belgian intel several years. Despite a parliamentary investigation and a high-profile resignation, little has changed. Add to that, that Degaugue mere and pere were not surprised when police arrived to tell them that their daughter died in Iraq. They knew why the police were there before they even said bonjour, as the Independent article says. Even after her husband died at the hands of U.S. forces in Iraq, Belgian intel did not question her or her parents. There are, of course, domestic political reasons in Belgium for the dangerous laxity. The excellent Brussels Journal.com adds some important information:
"The American authorities informed the Belgian authorities of the womans identity a few weeks ago, but Brussels kept it secret. Yesterday evening the Franco-Luxemburgian network RTL announced the news. Last night, the Belgian police arrested 14 people. Nine of them are Belgians, mostly of foreign origin, three are Moroccans and two are Tunisians. They are said to belong to the same network as the woman suicide bomber. Today a 27-year-old man was arrested in Paris. He is suspected of belonging to a group that takes Jihadists from Belgium to Iraq." Well, better late than never, mes amis. Three, Degauque began her drift into terrorism in a fairly standard pattern: marriage to a Muslim man of North African descent dramatically changing her behavior and appearence to conform to Islamist doctrines, isolating herself from family and friends and becoming emotionally and financially dependent of a man with terrorist connections. Finally, and this may have been the catalyst, the death of her "benefactor" which provided a powerful revenge motive. The "right to revenge" seems to be an key doctrine in radical Salafi circles, especially among women. The woman who failed to detonate her bomb in Amman, Jordan on Nov. 9 lost three brothers and an husband to anti-American activity. We know that al Qaeda prefers to recruit people who have lost a close relative to allied military or intelligence services. Allied forces should encourage moderate imams to speak out against the so-called right to revenge.We must learn to spot the signs of terrorist transformations of the Degauques of the world or we will pay for our ignorance with the blood of innocents.
Posted by Richard Miniter at December 2, 2005 10:41 AM
© 2003 - 2005 Richard T. Miniter. All rights reserved.
What's the score now? 2,000 arab male suicide bombers and one white woman? That about right? Why, that's proof if I ever saw it that profiling doesn't work! /sarcasm/
Q. What did the one Burka suicide bomber say to the other...
A. "does my bomb look big in this?"
Hold your breath for this speech; youll be sporting a cyan complexion.
I think the greater point is we should profile but not let our gaurd down.
Also we should use data mining to find non-arab looking folks who in fact are quite integrated with arabs.
Richard Miniter is a very smart fellow, but this is a silly statement. It is not necessary to "seem suspicious" to get searched in an American airport, and we all know that.
There will always be women willing to sacrifice themselves for some evil ideal and some evil person.
Look at Charles Manson and his coterie.
Idealism and philosophy have little to do with those who are deranged. Take some woman whose self-esteem, mental status, belief system and perceptions are in the toilet, and see what you get.
Well, since we don't profile I would say our guard has been down for several years.
I would call this a profile myself.
My sister lived in a commune in Northern Vermont for many years with Linda Kasabian...the Manson Girl who turned state witness...
> ... it provides still more evidence that racial profiling
> ("search all Arab males") will not stop terrorist attacks.
"Racial profiling" is a strawman. Anyone who argues for or
against it is either not paying attention or has an agenda
which does not include effective action against terror.
The sane policy is "statistical profiling" - i.e.
prioritize based on historical and emerging ranking
xriteria, then focus on the suspects with high scores.
And yes, most of them will be young islamic men
(and being a muslim isn't a "race" anyway).
Richard, dude, the broad WAS a Muslim. Hope writing intellectual screeds isn't your sole source of income.
Yeah, let's just focus on the exception, rather than the rule so we can support Norman Mineta's nuttiness. Granted profiling wouldn't have worked in her case or in the OK City bombing, but that still doesn't excuse the fact that the vast majority of homocide bombings are conducted by arab, Muslim males.
She looked like a camel and that is why she could not find a real man. Probably was as charming as one to and that is why she was sent to blow herself up.
Maybe a face transplant could have helped but not much.
Don't know where this guy is from, but he's got to be the world's densest human being. Or the dumbest. or both.
I have never heard anyone suggest that fucussing on arab and muslim males will defeat all hijackings and homicide bombings. Nothing can do that, short of the obvious which I shall get into later.
Why do we need to allow any muslims into the US for any reason anyway? Threatening or intimidating the U.S. population is not a human right, I don't care what the U.N. says.
Now, as for " ... French prisoners, white Australian hotheads, Berkeley, Calif.-converts, Indonesian students and Filipinas married to Arab men... " How long will it be before the universal nut-case "religion" collects a billion of them ?
D'OH!
That's a critical flaw in his argument. It is not "simple" to recruit people who do not fit the profile to become suicide bombers. Otherwise, the overwhelming number of perps that we know about would indeed not fit the profile. That is not the case.
Something we can all agree with.
Isn't it odd that you made the point in one brief sentence and the author's verbal diarrhea failed to?
I believe naivete like yours will be end of us. The author's agenda is clearly sympathetic to the sandmaggots.
This is a key element of why Islam is a mortal threat to civilization. It specifically instructs its adherents to retaliate for every perceived insult or injury - mandating a "cycle of violence" under which only the strongest prosper.
[2.178] O you who believe! retaliation is prescribed for you in the matter of the slain, the free for the free, and the slave for the slave, and the female for the female, but if any remission is made to any one by his (aggrieved) brother, then prosecution (for the bloodwit) should be made according to usage, and payment should be made to him in a good manner; this is an alleviation from your Lord and a mercy; so whoever exceeds the limit after this he shall have a painful chastisement.
[2.179] And there is life for you in (the law of) retaliation, O men of understanding, that you may guard yourselves.
[2.194] The Sacred month for the sacred month and all sacred things are (under the law of) retaliation; whoever then acts aggressively against you, inflict injury on him according to the injury he has inflicted on you and be careful (of your duty) to Allah and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil).
If you consider this Belgian woman and her failed attack alongside the Jordanian woman whose bomb "didn't work" at the last minute, I wouldn't say female bombers have a high success rate, unless there are more we don't know about. I somehow doubt this will actually turn into a serious trend.
Perhaps every Muslim isn't a dangerous threat, but most of the dangerous threats are Muslims!
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