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Posted on 11/03/2003 9:17:27 AM PST by tubavil
Edited on 01/26/2004 3:58:09 PM PST by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
Monday, November 3, 2003
A new message was posted in the last few hours by the Jeddah-based al-Qaeda-linked Al-Islah (Reform) society calling on Muslims to flee New York, Washington and Los Angeles in advance of major al Qaeda attacks in those cities. This is revealed by DEBKAfile.
The message accuses the United States of predetermining its end (doom) by its policies. ?The Jews rule the Pentagon by remote control and (are the cause) of Muslims being killed in every corner of the world. The United States should therefore expect more blows.?
The message is signed on behalf of the al Bayan (The Threat) movement by ?your warrior brother, Abul Hassan al Khadrami?.
Our Muslim expert identifies the name of the signatory as belonging to a Yemeni from Hadhrameuth, the Bin Ladens? place of origin where Osama enjoys substantial tribal support.
DEBKAfile?s counter-terror sources stress that warnings appearing on these forums are taken both very seriously and with caution by the intelligence services keeping track of the terrorist network?s electronic traffic.
Last November, Jeddah-based fundamentalist forums addressed a message to an Al Qaeda member, saying whoever understands ? understands; whoever knows, knows, but we are marching towards an operation that will take us to Paradise. Three days later, the Mombasa Paradise hotel was blown up killing 12 Kenyans and 3 Israelis and a failed shoulder-launched Strela anti-air missile missed an Israeli airliner at Mombasa airport.
And in Indonesia. The Bali bombing injured 200 Indonesians and killed a dozen or so. The JW Marriot bombing resulted in 95 percent Indonesian Muslim casualties, and exactly one Westerner (from Holland) was killed.
There have been reports that Jemaah Islamiah is having internal difficulties because it can't find any clean Western targets.
Having been in Jakarta a couple months ago, I can report that hotel and mall security is tight, and even if they were able to surmount security they'd have to take out a large number of Indonesians to get at the relatively small number of expatriate Westerners in the country. At the Jakarta Hyatt restaurant, most of the diners were Indonesian, and at the adjacent upscale mall, I didn't see any Westerners at all. The U.S. Embassy is buttoned-up like Ft. Knox, so that won't work.
It must be frustrating for the JI terrorists, with no good targets or victims to be had. I suppose they can always go back to bombing Christian (Chinese) churches, but that has a certain pointlessness to it.
I'd disagree with that - from their point of view, the plan is to eliminate all religions except their particular radical brand of Islam. So it wouldn't be pointless at all.
Of course what they'd really like is a knockout blow to the West (or a series of them if necessary), since the West is the biggest single thing in the way of that plan.
True, but in Indonesia a large percentage of business is dominated by ethnic Chinese Christians. Last time they were attacked (1998), the Chinese split for Singapore with their money and never came back.
In the ensuing economic meltdown, a lot of Indonesians were financially hurt, and the bombers learned their lesson ... sort of. The economy has never really picked up since then.
More bad PR for the Islamists, but they have short memories.
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