Posted on 10/24/2002 8:29:46 AM PDT by LSUfan
Like the LAX shooting, we will no doubt be told to ignore the fact that the D.C. area assassin is a Muslim with anti-American sentiments and known sympathies for the 9-11 hijackers. We will probably be told that we should be more worried about his rifle than about Radical Islam.
Mohammed may or may not have acted in isolation, but there is no escaping the fact that he was motivated by his Radical Islamic beliefs to commit these horrible crimes. And there is evidence to indicate that he may NOT have been acting on his own---or, at the very least, he may have taken up arms in response to some direction or signal from abroad. Consider the following facts:
Case In Point #1:
http://asp.washtimes.com/printarticle.asp?action=print&ArticleID=20020918-12894456
Terror cells at liberty to strike
Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published 9/18/2002
Information obtained from self-professed September 11 organizer Ramzi Binalshibh indicates al Qaeda has decentralized its leadership structure, making it more dangerous, according to U.S. officials.
Terrorist cells now have more autonomy to conduct attacks around the world, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
U.S. officials said the capture of Binalshibh, 30, who aided September 11 organizer Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, represents a major step in efforts to roll up the network that is said to operate in small cells of terrorists in up to 60 nations.
U.S. intelligence agencies have estimated that as many as 5,000 al Qaeda members may be operating inside the United States. Five Americans of Yemeni descent were arrested last week near Buffalo and charged with supporting a terrorist organization.
Yesterday, an FBI agent said two remaining members of that suspected al Qaeda-trained terror cell in western New York are believed to be in Yemen. On Monday, Mukhtar al-Bakri, 22, a Yemeni-born American arrested in Bahrain last week, was charged with conspiring to provide support or resources to foreign terrorists.
While in western New York, the suspects attended lectures by a "religious group" before going overseas, where they were lectured by Osama bin Laden, said Special Agent Peter Ahearn, who heads the FBI's Buffalo office.
A second U.S. official, who declined to comment on information obtained from Binalshibh, said the decentralization of al Qaeda makes it more difficult for the group to operate, "but the capability to strike is there."
"The organization and leadership [of al Qaeda] out of necessity has become more decentralized in an effort to make the group less vulnerable," the official said. "They have pushed decision-making downward so that orders for attacks don't necessarily have to come from the top."
Attorney General John Ashcroft said last week in announcing a heightened alert status that "widely dispersed, unsophisticated strikes" by lower-level al Qaeda operatives are a danger.
Case In Point #2:
http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/secure/2002/10_29/back.asp
BACKGROUNDER: Compiled by Bill Gertz
Declassified testimony reveals new details about 9/11
The joint House-Senate investigation into the intelligence failures of September 11 has declassified the top-secret testimony of CIA Director George Tenet from last summer that reveals new details about the plot.
The attack was prepared three years in advance and was carried out by a combination of Al Qaida veterans and young Saudis with no terrorist background that could be traced by governments.
Case in Point #3:
http://asp.washtimes.com/printarticle.asp?action=print&ArticleID=20021018-93667484
Al Qaeda shifts strategy
Ahmed Rashid
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH
Published 10/18/2002
LAHORE, Pakistan — The more al Qaeda is whittled down — its cells broken up, its leaders captured — the quicker it transforms itself into new shapes and forms to survive. The bombing in Indonesia demonstrates that al Qaeda is no longer a party with a central core as existed in Afghanistan, but a global movement whose essence is now local.
Its belief system is still rigid in its hatred toward the United States, but it is also adaptable to local circumstances, causes and issues. Al Qaeda has become a multiheaded monster, much like a child's toy: Twist the toy around and it shows many different faces and egos.
The Bali bombing was preceded by attacks on U.S. troops in Kuwait, Afghanistan and the Philippines, several suicide attacks against foreigners and Christians in Pakistan and an assault on a French oil tanker outside Yemen. Then there were the lesser known, recent attempted attacks that were foiled by security forces in Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Germany.
The attacks that occurred all fit the al Qaeda picture as we have come to know it — kill Americans, attack large economic targets symbolic of capitalism, attack to embarrass pro-Western rulers in the Muslim world.
But there is also a local picture that needs to be understood. On Bali, the target was Australians, whom Indonesian extremists — both nationalist and religious — blame for the country's debacle involving East Timor. In Pakistan, the target has been Pakistani Christians, whom local militant groups believe are being funded by the pope, the archbishop of Canterbury and almost everyone else to Christianize the country.
This local agenda has come about in the aftermath of al Qaeda's defeat in Afghanistan. Thousands of al Qaeda militants fled, either back home or to neighboring countries, where they were told to coordinate with local groups and to reorganize.
Case in Point #4:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29387
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
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TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LAND
Hezbollah leader targets Christians
Lebanon's Nasrallah says U.S. aim 'to redraw world's political map'
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Posted: October 23, 2002
10:06 a.m. Eastern
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© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
Hezbollah terrorist leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warns "Christian Zionists" are gaining strength in the United States and are having a powerful impact on U.S. foreign policy.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony in Lebanon, Nasrallah charged...
"Their aim is to redraw the world's political map," he said. "It is said that several U.S. presidents are affiliated with the Christian Zionists."
"Although the United States is powerful, it has its weaknesses," he said.
Nasrallah said he is not threatened by a country that calls itself "great."
"The U.S. empire, which is slithering over our region, is incapable of arresting a single sniper in its capital," he said sarcastically, referring to the unsolved rash of killings in the Washington, D.C., area.
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*Could it be that, even if he was totally independent, Mohammed acted as a result of signals from overseas sent through statements by Jihadist leaders on al Jazeera or elsewhere?
*Could it be that he is a sleeper with loose ties to Jihadists and received signals through clerics at mosques that he attended?
*The Seattle Times has been quick to point out that Mohammed has "no known ties to al Qaeda." Well, neither did many of the 9-11 hijackers.
*Is it merely a coincidence that a Muslim starts systematically assassinating innocent civilians near America's capital just days after intelligence reports indicate that local cells have been authorized to act on their own and Attorney General Ashcroft warns America of "unsophisticated, widely-dispersed" attacks by "lower-level" operatives?
*Just in the last week, the leader of the terrorist group Hizbollah rails in a speech against America and mentions the DC sniper as proof of American weakness. At that time, government officials here were bending over backwards to discount any Jihadist connection. Heck, even the host of "America's Most Wanted" was insisting that there was no Islamic militant connection and this guy was a serial killer! Maybe the head of Hizbollah knew something we didn't know?
-http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/secure/2002/10_29/back.asp --
-http://asp.washtimes.com/printarticle.asp?action=print&ArticleID=20021018-93667484 --
-http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29387 --
I certainly hope someone is checking that out!
In 1966 Bobby Seale and Huey Newton formed the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California.
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