Posted on 09/11/2003 5:19:57 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Today, as Americans quietly mourn the tragedy of 9/11, an extremist British Islamic group is convening a conference in London, England, dedicated to "The Magnificent Nineteen" — the suicide hijackers who caused more than 3,000 deaths in the United States. Hundreds of young British Muslims are expected to attend.
Happy anniversary.
The participants will explore, according to the self-styled emir of the al-Muhajiroun hosting group, the root causes of the terrorist attack. Although faces of the 19 hijackers were prominently displayed on flyers promoting the event, Omar Bakri Mohammed claims, with casual disingenuousness, that the meeting will not be a celebration of 9/11, oh no. The 19 hijackers, mass murderers, were merely "youth who believed in their Lord.''
A pitiless and avenging lord, it would appear, not the loving God of a loving Islam, as practised by the vast majority of Muslims around the world; Muslims who must surely recoil from the hijacking of their faith by homicidal jihadists.
It should be noted that the emir has also previously praised two British suicide bombers who earlier this year blew up a bar in Tel Aviv. The men, with no previous personal experience of Palestine, had soaked up al-Muhajiroun's fiery speeches. But terrorism directed at Israel is always categorized differently, not quite as repugnant and certainly not so globally condemned as the bombing of a Jordanian embassy or the evisceration of a U.N. compound in Baghdad.
Another incendiary Islamist busy issuing religious fatwas from London is Jordanian-born Abu Baseer, spiritual adviser to the northern Iraq-based Ansar ul-Islam. Baseer encourages Muslims to fight against British and American troops because it is every Muslim's duty to help other Muslims, even a genocidal and secular Muslim such as Saddam Hussein, against non-Muslim enemies.
Yesterday, Imam Samudra — convicted in the Bali bombing that claimed 202 lives, most of the victims Australian tourists — was sentenced by an Indonesian court to die by firing squad for his role in that appalling attack. Samudra was snarly and unrepentant. Until the Bali carnage, Indonesia — the most populous Muslim country on earth, generally practising a more moderate version of the religion — claimed to have no significant Islamist terrorist cells active within its borders. The Saudis said the same thing, until terrorism came home to roost, Wahhabists hoisted by their own fundamentalism.
Iraq, mostly a jihadist-free zone before the U.S.-led invasion — Saddam was no fan of Osama bin Laden and the feeling was mutual — has now become a magnet for foreign Arab fighters and radicalized Muslims who just want to kill a lot of Americans. This is an end unto itself, although the ensuing mayhem dovetails nicely with the undimmed ambitions of remnant Baathist loyalists.
In Afghanistan, where NATO will soon be expanding its presence as inheritor of the American interdiction, the Taliban is resurgent and regrouping. As resistant to fumigation as cockroaches, these Taliban elements have disturbing traction, even with the Al Qaeda training camps pulverized by bombs.
In the lawless tribal areas of northwestern Pakistan, anti-West jihadist sentiment is arguably fiercer now than it was before the United States declared its War On Terrorism. The Pakistan government, a peculiar and shifty ally in the anti-terrorism campaign, may have withdrawn its moral support of hate-fomenting madrassas, but the schools carry on, providing twisted Quranic instruction to many young people who have no other access to education.
Two years removed from The Day That Changed The World, the war on terrorism has devolved into global skirmishes, some simply more epic than others. But Osama bin Laden is still presumably alive and at large. Ditto the one-eyed Mullah Omar. Saddam Hussein continues to draw breath, though his odious sons are dead and buried. Terrorists plot and attack, seemingly at their leisure. They'll strike again, no doubt, although probably not so spectacularly (one can only pray) as they did on Sept. 11, 2001.
The war bin Laden wanted — the Clash of Civilizations — is unfolding before our eyes. It began long before the twin towers fell. I suspect it will go on for the rest of my life, a constant dread and inescapable threat. As such, bin Laden's war against the West has been an extraordinary success, especially so because only one side — the civilized world — can be held accountable for its actions. There is no code of conduct for terrorists, and no one to whom they need justify their tactics.
But if bin Laden's intent was to force the U.S. out of Muslim lands, most particularly out of Saudi Arabia, the custodian of Islam's holiest cities, his campaign has been an abysmal failure. Two years ago, there were no Americans in Afghanistan or Iraq. Now those countries are de facto U.S./Western satrapies, however messy their occupation. And world opinion will not allow, quite rightly, either Afghanistan or Iraq to be abandoned, the former by NATO, the latter by Americans and, imminently, a broader-based U.N.-sanctioned coalition.
The world did change on 9/11, and America has been at war, in some form or other, ever since. How effective that war has been is open to debate. But after standing atop the World Trade Center rubble, bullhorn in hand, telling exhausted rescue workers that he could hear their voices, and by extension the outraged, alarmed voices of all Americans, President George W. Bush — the accidental president, his administration's credibility hanging by a chad — had no option but to strike back.
It has become fashionable in some quarters to revise recent history and cast the war on terrorism as a colossal miscalculation. Undoubtedly, America's aggressive policies have made more enemies in the Muslim world, stoked immeasurably by a war in Iraq that, however Bush characterizes it now, was never about the continuum of terrorism, apart from the terror inflicted by Saddam Hussein against his own people. That was always the most compelling reason for ousting the Baathist regime, and one of these days Bush should candidly say so.
But the anti-terrorism agenda was, it should never be forgotten, reactive, not proactive. The U.S. didn't pick this fight, didn't bully anyone into a slug-match. Even before those planes slammed into the towers, into the Pentagon, into a Pennsylvania field, there had been the bombing of the USS Cole, the bombing of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, the first World Trade Center bombing.
Militant Islam was the common denominator.
What has the war on terrorism accomplished?
Quite a bit more than has been alleged by those so bitterly in opposition to America that they barely even pay lip-service any more to those 3,000 dead. It is instructive to recall these successes:
*Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, chairman of Al Qaeda's operations committee and purported mastermind of 9/11. Captured March 1 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, along with a trove of papers and computer records. The biggest catch yet.
*Mohammed Abdel Rahman, captured, son of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric currently in a US federal prison for plotting to blow up New York landmarks in 1995.
*Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker," arrested in Minnesota, August, 2001.
*Tawfiq bin Attash, allegedly ran the operation that bombed the USS Cole in Yemen's Aden harbour, captured.
*Attash's brother, Umar al-Gharib, arrested in a Karachi raid, allegedly ran logistics for the 9/11 attacks out of Hamburg.
*Ramzi Yousef, serving a life term in the U.S. as a key planner in the '93 World Trade Center bombing, also plotted to blow up 11 commercial aircraft in the U.S. in 1995.
*Mohammed Atef, Al Qaeda's military commander, killed during U.S. bombing of Afghanistan in November, 2001. (His daughter is married to bin Laden's son Mohammed.)
*Anas al-Liby, training camp commander for Al Qaeda, captured in eastern Afghanistan, indicted for his involvement in '98 embassy bombings.
*Abu Zubaydah, member of bin Laden's inner circle, in charge of recruiting and operations for Al Qaeda, arrested in Faisalabad, Pakistan, last March. Earlier, sentenced in absentia for his involvement in a thwarted millennium bombing scheme in Jordan.
*Ramzi Binalshibh, captured after a shoot-out with police in Karachi last September, worked with Mohammed Atta in planning 9/11 attacks, key member of the Hamburg Al Qaeda cell.
*Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, identified by Abu Zubaydah as a key plotter of 9/11, also accused of involvement in the '93 World Trade Center bombing.
*Mustafa Ahmed al-Hisawi, arrested Saudi who handled finance for 9/11.
*Abd al-Hadid-Iraqi, arrested senior Al Qaeda military commander.
*Mounir El-Motassadeq, the first to stand trial in connection with Sept. 11, he handled funds for three of the hijackers, sentenced by a Hamburg court to 15 years in prison on more than 3,000 counts of murder.
*Abd al-Rahim Al-Nashri, a Saudi who ran Al Qaeda's Gulf operation, captured in the United Arab Emirates.
*Richard Reid, hapless shoe-bomber, sentenced to life in prison.
*Imam Samudra, sentenced yesterday to death by firing squad for his role in planning Bali bombing.
Have the arrests, detentions and convictions made a difference? Yes. The capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed alone was a huge blow to Al Qaeda, perhaps setting back the terrorist itinerary by as much as 50 per cent, according to investigators. Will others come forward to fill the void? Probably. That's why the war on terrorism will never have an Armistice Day.
Last Sunday, a memorial service was held in New York for Michael Ragusa, the last firefighter killed at the World Trade Center to be thus memorialized. His remains weren't found, so his family buried a vial of blood he'd once donated to a bone-marrow centre.
Eventually, the remains of more than 1,000 of the 2,792 people killed in the twin towers will be buried at the memorial to be built on the hallowed site. More than 12,000 body parts remain unidentified because the DNA is too badly damaged.
Happy anniversary indeed.
The courts in Germany are not our allies in the war on terror if this is what they sentence people to. Amazing!
Let's pray and work hard to ensure it does not.
...and unless we are careful, vigilant, do not falter and do not waver...it could get worse.
Let's pray and work hard to ensure it does not.
That is because we are civilized. That is our strength, but also our greatest weakness in this war. I fear that it will take some catastrophic attack (nuclear or biological) that kills hundreds of thousands before we finally take off the gloves.
Gosh, I guess he would have no problem then with some 'freedom fighters' blowing the crap out of the Reuters' headquarters.
Wrong. The most compelling reason is that we now have an invincible American force right across the borders of Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia, the three biggest sponsors of terrorism in the world. Any bets on how they'll behave while we're on their doorsteps?
I know exactly how you feel. I have spent all day being more enraged at the cowards and traitors within this country than I am at the terrorists. I have come to believe that the enemy within may be far more dangerous than the one outside.
I guess the "Magnificent 19" celebration in England by Islamazis claiming credit wasn't enough PROOF for these IDIOTS!
It's more important that the demonRATs WIN, than be principled...now why does this sound so familiar....hmm...
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