Lessons of a Belgian Woman’s suicide-attack in Iraq

Richard Mintner.com ^ | 12/2/05 | Richard Mintner

[saganite]

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/

[vimto]

Q. What did the one Burka suicide bomber say to the other...

A. "does my bomb look big in this?"

[OneLoyalAmerican]

Allied forces should encourage moderate imams to speak out against the so-called right to revenge.

Hold your breath for this speech; you’ll be sporting a cyan complexion.

[x5452]

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.

[Bahbah]

If Ms. Degauque brought her bomb into an American airport instead of against an American patrol in Iraq, she would not have seemed suspicious.

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.

[OpusatFR]

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.

[saganite]

Well, since we don't profile I would say our guard has been down for several years.

[razorback-bert]

fairly standard pattern: marriage to a Muslim man of North African descent — dramatically changing her behavior and appearence to conform to Islamist doctrines

I would call this a profile myself.

[rlmorel]

My sister lived in a commune in Northern Vermont for many years with Linda Kasabian...the Manson Girl who turned state witness...

[Boundless]

> ... 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).

[cake_crumb]

" In my new book, Disinformation, I devote a chapter to debunking the idea focussing on searching all Muslims..."

Richard, dude, the broad WAS a Muslim. Hope writing intellectual screeds isn't your sole source of income.

[DustyMoment]

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.

[Berlin_Freeper]

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.

[Publius6961]

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.

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!

[The Electrician]

Instead, radical groups simply recruit people who do not fit the profile.

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.

[Publius6961]

I think the greater point is we should profile but not let our gaurd down.

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.

[thoughtomator]

The "right to revenge" seems to be an key doctrine in radical Salafi circles, especially among women.

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).

[rightwingintelligentsia]

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.

[Gritty]

Being a Muslim ought to carry the sort of suspicion and official stigma being a Communist once did. You are suspicious until proven otherwise because you belong to a subversive political ideology. Islam is the same sort of ideology.

Perhaps every Muslim isn't a dangerous threat, but most of the dangerous threats are Muslims!