Posted on 03/11/2004 11:38:08 AM PST by Eurotwit
Sky News just reported that a Spanish minister has just announced that an arabic tape (?) and detontator where found in a van in Madrid.
Total BS.
And check my links in post #296.
Ewww, sounds like a bio attack!
BOOK REVIEW: Matthews, Tony, Shadows Dancing: Japanese Espionage Against the West, 1939-1945
Tony Matthews' book focuses on a Japanese spy network code named TO which was controlled from Spain with the blessing and cooperation of Spanish authorities including Foreign Ministers Ramon Suner (Franco's brother-in-law) and Count Gomez Jordana.
Matthews' book contains new information dug out of the U.S. National Archives, including newly declassified Magic intercepts and the book is largely based on these new findings. Matthews also turned to sources in such places as Australia, Great Britain, Spain, Japan and the Philippines to assemble the story of Japanese spy rings around the world 1939-1945.
In neutral Spain, spy masters operating under the aegis of Japan's Ambassador Yakichiro Suma controlled TO spy rings worldwide and coordinated exchanges of intelligence with the other Axis powers through Germany's Abwehr general staff intelligence agency and Italy's Military Intelligence Bureau. In neutral Portugal Ambassador Morito Morishima provided a vital link and source of intelligence for the Axis. In Germany, Ambassador Baron Hiroshi Oshima outranked both Suma in Madrid and Morishima in Lisbon, and much of the TO intelligence was funneled through Japan's Embassy in Berlin, where Oshima enjoyed a close friendship with Admiral Canaris, chief of Germany's Abwehr. Oshima then relayed TO information to Tokyo along with messages coordinating policies and operations between the three Axis powers. Japan's diplomats in Afghanistan spied on Russia, Iran and India and fed TO information into Suma's Madrid center. This pattern of diplomatic cover and use of neutral third countries and Japanese of ordinary backgrounds was repeated around the world.
[SNIP]
Then, as now [link], Japanese spies had assumed the cover of diplomats, businessmen, fisherman and other mundane occupations and frequently relied on the cooperation of, or the blind eyes of top officials of supposedly neutral governments. Here too is found the story of Japanese attempts to subvert U.S. politics and foment unrest among minorities with overtures to the National Association for Colored People. This practice was repeated in Mexico and in South America and was patterned after Japan's subversive activities throughout Asia.
[SNIP]
Matthews gives a fairly good summary of the historical background to Japanese espionage methods. The Japanese, like their counterparts in China, developed espionage programs by linking secret societies with ultranationalist aims such as Genyosha (Dark Ocean Society), Kokuryu-ku (Amur River Society, the Black Dragons link) and organized criminal enterprises such as Yakuza crime syndicates. [link]. Indeed, Dark Ocean and the Black Dragons supplied espionage and subversion services to the Empire in Korea in 1895 and perhaps earlier. Matthews mentions Dark Ocean founder and Black Dragon mentor Mitsuru Toyama, as well secret society links to the Japanese Kempei Tai, a functional equivalent to Hitler's Gestapo that relied upon the secret societies for manpower and support.
[SNIP]
In the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines, as in the U.S. and Mexican west coasts, throngs of Japanese <>fishermen pulled nets and took notes and pictures for the Empire. Japan's fishing fleets were augmented by farmers, mining engineers, industrialists and merchants, barbers, house-boys, maids and prostitutes, especially in those areas designated as part of Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. In this sea of ordinary Japanese was submerged a potent fifth column of spies, subversives and saboteurs. Matthews relates the story of French author Jean Marques-Riviere's world travels when the writer wrote of observing Japanese spy rings operating in Malaya, India, Burma, Ceylon, Thailand and as far away as Port Said, Egypt and Italian-occupied Ethiopia.
[SNIP]
'It" MUST be remembered, because the Jihadis won't forget, nor stop. Well...unless they're all dead.
5.56mm
For starters the Brussels-based World Observatory of Terrorism, an independent think tank affiliated with the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, points to five major reasons that cast doubt on the involvement of ETA.
First, ETA generally warns Spanish authorities moments before launching their attacks in which civilians are likely to be harmed. This, obviously, was not the case on Thursday.
Second, ETA traditionally targets representatives of the government or the administration, such as policemen, the military, magistrates or even journalists who oppose them.
Third, ETA customarily selects "symbolic" targets, such as military barracks and administrative buildings. Although ETA's largest attack to date was in 1987 against a supermarket in Barcelona that killed 21 people, this was the exception rather than the norm.
Fourth, ETA always claims its attacks. Following any ETA bombing, ETA militants call in a claim to Spanish authorities. This failed to happen this time.
Fifth, ETA has never in the past carried out multiple attacks. According to some sources, at least 10 bombs were detonated almost simultaneously on Thursday.
On the other hand, these murderous attacks bear the traditional hallmark of al-Qaida: multiple bombs detonating a few seconds apart and programmed to cause the largest possible number of human casualties.
Again, according to the World Observatory of Terrorism, several elements seem to point to the "International Jihad Movement."
The "multiple targeting," reports the WOT, is the standard operating procedure of the fundamentalist Islamist movement.
Just look at the past attacks attributed to al-Qaida; the twin attacks against the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salam on Aug. 7, 1998, the double attacks in Istanbul last year, the various attacks in Iraq and of course, the twin 9/11 bombings against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Furthermore, attacks planned to cause large numbers of civilian casualties is the preferred jihadi approach.
Spain, says the WOT, is "an acceptable target" for al-Qaida for is unfaltering support of the United States in the war in Iraq. Spain, along with the United Kingdom, has contributed troops to the war effort, and its prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, showed unflagging support to President George W. Bush and the war effort. Aznar stood side by side with Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a pre-war summit in the Azores.
The Madrid bombings appear to be unlike anything ETA has accomplished in the past. French and German intelligence officers who spoke to United Press International on condition their names not be revealed say, "the Madrid attacks are far too sophisticated to be the work of ETA. There was too much logistics involved for this to be the work of ETA."
Several Islamist movements were traced to Spain, and some were apprehended and dismantled, intelligence officials reported. The Brussels think tank further stated in a previous report that Spain was "classified in eighth position on the list of Western countries most threatened by the jihadist movement."
"We underlined that the countries participating in the coalition in Iraq -- including Spain -- could expect to be the target of Islamic attacks," said Claude Moniquet of the WOT.
Another reason why it does not appear to make sense that ETA would be behind these attacks is that the Basque separatist movement already suffers from a lack of popular sympathy. If proof of these murderous killings were to be tied to ETA, the group would stand to loose even more support, without which it would have a hard time sustaining itself politically. Even the Basque population would reject such thoughtless killings and would begin to distance themselves from the group. Of this, the ETA leadership is well aware.
...cunning Basquerds...
[SNIP]
But Bin Laden may have had another, more personal motivation. The World Trade Center's architect, Minoru Yamasaki, was a favorite designer of the Binladin family's patrons—the Saudi royal family—and a leading practitioner of an architectural style that merged modernism with Islamic influences.
Thanks; interesting. I wonder if any of Yamasaki's other designs have been targeted by AQ or other groups? Here's a list of some of his other work--I see he also designed Logan Airport. Could be coincidental, but makes you go hmmmm:
Minoru Yamasaki, world-class architect
A partial list of his works:
Urban Redevelopment Plan, St. Louis, 1952
Gratiot Urban Redevelopment Project, Detroit, 1954
University School, Grosse Pointe, 1954
U.S. Consulate, Kobe, Japan, 1955
Pruit-Igoe Public Housing, St. Louis, 1955
Lambert-St.Louis Airport Terminal, 1956
McGregor Memorial Conference Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, 1958
Reynolds Metals Regional Sales Office, Southfield, 1959
Michigan Consolidated Gas Co., Detroit, 1963
U.S. Pavilion, World Agricultural Fair, New Delhi, India, 1959
Dhahran Air Terminal, Dhahran Saudi Arabia, 1961 Federal Science Pavilion, Seattle World's Fair, 1962
Queen Emma Gardens, Honolulu, 1964
North Shore Congregation Israel, Glenco, Ill., 1964
Northwestern National Life Insurance Co., Minneapolis, 1964
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, 1965
Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, 1966
IBM Office Building, Seattle, 1964
Manufacturers and Traders Trust Co., Buffalo, 1967
World Trade Center, New York, 1976
Eastern Airlines Terminal, Logan International Airport, Boston, 1969
Horace Mann Educators Insurance Co., Springfield, Ill., 1979
Temple Beth El, Birmingham, 1974
Century Plaza Towers, Los Angeles, 1975
Colorado National Bank, Denver, 1974
Bank of Oklahoma, Tulsa, 1977
Performing Arts Center, Tulsa, 1976
Rainer Bank Tower, Seattle, 1977
Federal Reserve Bank, Richmond, Va., 1978
Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency Head Office, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 1981
Founder's Hall, Shinji Shumeikai, Shiga Prefecture, Japan, 1982
Eastern Province International Airport, Saudi Arabia, 1985
Bummer. I've been there and done that. It sux.
May you have good fortune after my post to you.
8^)
5.56mm
Huh?
You said only muslims could have done this bombing. Perhaps AQ is involved, that would be my guess. But you're just throwing out hyperbole when you say that only muslims could pull off heinous murders, terrorism, and atrocities. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and a host of others were not muslims.
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