Posted on 10/14/2002 8:10:11 AM PDT by dead
The dangers of terrorism and failing states have been ignored in Indonesia, writes Richard Norton-Taylor.
For months, while their political masters have been increasingly obsessed by Saddam Hussein, Western intelligence agencies have warned of planned terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda or, more likely, other Islamist extremist groups with similar objectives and outlook.
They warned in particular about the likelihood of attacks on such American and British targets as bases and embassies - targets which represent the governmental or military presence of Western countries in the Muslim world. Commercial targets, equally symbolic, were also in their sights.
The awful message of the bombing of the Bali nightclub is that Islamist extremists appear to have changed tactics with horrific implications. Bali may be a Hindu region dominated by Western tourists in the world's largest Muslim country, but the nightclub was the easiest and softest of targets.
US officials early this year said that five suspected members of al-Qaeda had arrived in Indonesia from Yemen in July last year, planning to blow up the US embassy in Jakarta, and were allowed to leave after they realised they had been discovered.
More recently, the US had expressed concern about the failure of Megawati Soekarnoputri's Government - caught between Washington, on whom Indonesia relies for aid, and local opposition to US policy, including the war in Afghanistan - to face up to the threat of Islamist extremism. The US has contrasted the attitude of the Indonesian Government with the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, which have taken a far more robust approach.
Western intelligence sources have blamed the Bali attack on Jamaah Islamiah, an extreme group whose leaders are said to have met Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian regarded as al-Qaeda's deputy leader, in Indonesia two years ago.
Whoever was responsible for the attack, al-Qaeda and its supporters have not been defeated. Just a week ago, a French oil tanker was attacked off the coast of Yemen, not far away from the October 2000 attack on the American destroyer, the USS Cole, in Aden. Since September 11, Pakistani-based extremist groups have attacked a Christian church frequented by western diplomats, and a bus carrying French technicians working in Karachi's military port.
Intelligence sources have revealed a foiled plot by al-Qaeda agents to bomb US or British warships in the Straits of Gibraltar, and a possible attack on British military bases in Cyprus. And early this year, Singapore foiled an elaborate plot by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists to blow up western embassies, US warships, offices of US companies and a bus carrying US soldiers.
But while Western intelligence agencies have been trying to track the movements of al-Qaeda sympathisers, their governments have been preoccupied by quite another matter - Saddam and his weapons of mass destruction. Al-Qaeda has lost its base in Afghanistan; Osama bin Laden is either dead or in hiding; it doesn't matter. That has been the prevailing attitude in Washington, and also in many parts of the British Government.
For security and intelligence agencies with their ear closer to the ground, it is not so simple. Al-Qaeda is not a traditional terrorist organisation with a disciplined hierarchy. It is used, misleadingly, as shorthand for any Islamist extremist group. It is more like a movement, almost amoeba-like, with varying degrees of support and contacts with other groups throughout much of the Muslim world, including Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Indonesia, and elsewhere in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia. But not among Palestinians, a generally secular people; and certainly not in Baghdad, the most secular country in the Middle East, Israel included.
Short-sighted politicians in Washington, notably Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of Defence, and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, have been trying desperately, and singularly failing, to come up with evidence to prove there are links between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. In trying they have diverted the resources of their intelligence agencies, including the CIA, and are trying to manipulate intelligence-gathering for political ends.
No one in any competent position in the British Government believes there is any link between al-Qaeda and Saddam. They do not want this said publicly for fear of upsetting the Bush Administration. President Bush, meanwhile, having dealt with Afghanistan, wants to get on with the task of toppling Saddam, claiming it is part of the war on terrorism. But Afghanistan is not dealt with - it remains unstable.
It will now be even more difficult for Bush to justify an invasion and occupation of Iraq, which is only likely to encourage further recruits to Islamist extremism. Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary, was right recently when he warned in a little-noticed speech of the twin dangers of terrorism and failing states. But these dangers were overlooked in Indonesia, as hundreds of innocent victims have now found to their cost.
“One thing is certain - as Britain's top military figures appreciate even if their counterparts in the Pentagon do not - there is no military solution to the fight against terrorism, and no military deterrent to prevent it.”
- Richard Norton-Taylor - January 10th, 2002
Surrender monkey.
What did we (in America) learn from September 11, 2001 and the deaths of 3,000 people. I am tempted to admit: Absolutely nothing.
Among the many unlearned lessons of Day-Which-Will-Live-In-Infamy-II-- the necessity to control our borders, the need for a patriotic renewal and the importance of combating multiculturalism -- the most significant is the nature of Islam. You will note that I do not say militant Islam, or radical Islam, or Islamic extremism or other such weasel words – but Islam, period.
Every one of the hijackers who flew airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon were professing and practicing Moslems, as is Osama bin Laden. The Al Qaeda terrorist network, is based in Moslem countries and supported financially by the so called pious Moslem leadership of Saudi Arabia.
The overwhelming majority of Moslem religious authorities who have spoken out on the subject, including those at the main mosque in Mecca and Egypt’s prestigious Al Azar University, either endorse or rationalize acts of terrorism. On a day when Americans were incinerated or buried under tons of rubble, Muslims from Nigeria to Indonesia, celebrated in the streets.
Sept. 11 was one chapter in a 1400-year jihad. Every day, the World Trade Center massacre is reenacted on a smaller scale somewhere in the world. Jewish women and children are burned alive in a bus in Israel. A missionary is beheaded in the Philippines, gunmen shoot up a church in Pakistan (deliberately firing into the prostrate bodies of women trying to shield their children). Ancient monasteries and convents are destroyed in Kosovo. Women are sentenced to death for adultery in Nigeria, Hindus are murdered in the Kashmir. In Denmark, the Muslim community there has put a $30,000 bounty on the heads of Jews and those who support Israel. Nuns are beheaded in Baghdad, Christians in Sudan are forced into slavery, and in Britain, Islam openly states it is going to take over not only the UK, but the whole world -- and the beat goes on.
Genocide in the Sudan, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, religious persecution in Saudi Arabia, calls for another holocaust in mosques from Mecca to Gaza, the imposition of Islamic law in Nigeria, forced conversions in Indonesia, synagogues burned in France, Jews attacked across Europe – these are everyday events, as Third World and much of the First slowly turns Islamic green.
Sadly our leaders, from President Bush on down, insist on peddling the absurdity that Islam is a religion of peace – a creed of kindness and benevolence tragically and inexplicably corrupted by fanatics.
Why is the leadership of the West reluctant to confront manifest reality? The reason lies partly with our absurd foreign policy. We have declared certain Moslem nations to be our loyal allies – including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. We would not want to offend these dear friends by saying something unflattering about their bloody, butcherly, dark ages faith.
Americans are naturally benevolent. Most of us are taught from childhood that is religion is good (and it does not matter which religion). As long as little Johnny believes in God and goodness, it’s inconsequential whether he lights candles, wears a skull cap to services or prays in the direction of Mecca.
This works with every religion except Islam.
Consider the following: Of the three major western religions: one was started by a lawgiver who helped to free slaves; one by a man of peace; the last one by a man who loved war and having sex with children. Mohammed not only led men into battle, he enjoyed marrying girls as young as six years old (it is in the Koran). The essence of his message is sick and disgusting. A holy war where you slaughter your enemies, while at the same time encouraging followers to have sex with the children they capture (as he did) for the glory of Allah. He even advised his followers to negotiate false peace treaties in order to lull their enemies.
For almost 1,400 years, that has been the reality of Islam. Within a century after the death of Mohammed, Islam spread throughout the Middle East and across North Africa. It overran the Iberian peninsula and was finally stopped in southern France. It spread eastward as far as the southern Philippines. It was not propagated by fresh-faced young men knocking on doors and announcing: “Hello. I’m from your local mosque. Have you considered the Koran?” It was and is spread by force – conversion by the sword or death. This is still in practice today.
Some will respond that all religions go through periods of violence, usually in their infancy. Christianity had its crusades and Inquisition, its forced conversions and expulsions. The evil committed in the name of Christ happened centuries ago. The evil committed in the name of the Prophet is going on now, as you read these words. Of 22 conflicts in the Third World, 20 involve Moslems versus someone else. Coincidence? In his brilliant book, “Clash of Cultures and the Remaking of World Order,” Samuel Huntington speaks of Islam’s “bloody borders.”
There is no Methodist Jihad, no Jewish Hasidic holy warriors, no Buddhist monk wanting to have 72 virgins waiting for him after a suicide bombing, no Hindu Holy men plotting to blow up people, no Southern Baptist suicide bombers, no Mormon elders preaching the annihilation of members of other faiths.
Islam is a warrior religion – the perfect vessel for fanatics, the violence-prone, the envious and haters of all stripes. This is one reason why Islam is making so many converts among the peaceable denizens of our prison system.
Still, much of the West is addicted to a fairy-tale version of Islam. Christian and Jewish clergy fall all over themselves to have interfaith services with imams. Representatives of Moslem groups are invited to the White House. The president signs a Ramadan declaration. In California, public schools ask children to role-play at being Moslems. Our universities take carefully selected verses from the Koran and present them as the essence of the faith. All that’s needed is a Moslem character on “Sesame Street.” Look – it’s the Jihad Monster!
This perspective engenders a fatally false sense of security. Imagine, in 1940, Winston Churchill taking to the airwaves to announce “Nazism is an ideology of peace which, regrettably, has been perverted by a few fanatics like Hitler and Goebbels. But most storm troopers and SS men are fine follows – your friends and neighbors.”
For the first thousand years of its history – from the death of Mohammad to the 17th. century decline of the Ottoman empire, Islam was an expansionist force. For the next 300 years, as the West rose to preeminence, Islam receded. For the past four decades – fueled by Arab oil wealth, a surplus population in the Middle East, the waning of the West and the rise of more virulent strains of the faith (Shiism, Wahhabism, Sunni fundamentalism) – Islam is expanding once more.
Due to Moslem immigration and aggressive proselytizing, Islam is being exported to the West. Moslem populations are burgeoning throughout Western Europe. (In southern France, there are more mosques than churches.) In Judeo-Christian America, Islam is the fastest growing religion. It is also spreading down the coast of West Africa, through the Balkans (after Serbia, Macedonia is the next target) and up from Mindanao in the Philippines.
Wherever it comes, Islam brings its delightful customs – child marriages, female circumcisions, rabid hatred toward Christians, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists and every other non-muslim, terrorism and support for terrorism and a virulent intolerance of other faiths.
Am I suggesting we declare war on over 1 billion million Moslems? The question is moot – Islam has declared war on the rest of the human race. When one side knows it’s at war and the other thinks peace and brotherhood prevail, guess who wins?
Ultimately, it is not about Jews in Israel, or Orthodox Serbs in Kosovo, or Hindus in Kashmir, Buddhists in Thailand, or Maronite Catholics in Lebanon, Taoists in China, or Christians in Sudan and Nigeria, but all of us. As Ben Franklin would have it – Either we will hang together, or surely we shall all hang separately.
We can fight al-Qaida and Saddam at the same time. And we will.
And this feckless bitch will piss and moan and cry in his white wine spritzer about it throughout.
Sure, look at how well the Brits did with the IRA.
After the Bali bombing, I knew some people on the left (as well as the right) would pounce on it as proof that the war on terror was a "failure". Well, that depends on what our goals are. There hasn't been a terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11, so it's a success in that regard. Smaller terrorist attacks, such as the French tanker and now this, are much easier to do. All you need is some explosives, a few cars, and a target. Take a look at McVeigh.
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