The Forgotten Terrorist
The Forgotten
Terrorist
|
February 14, 2008 Still alive more than fiveyears after 9/11, terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden warned of future attacks inside the United States in an released an audio tape to the Al Jazeera television network. Bin Laden also makes mention of a possible "truce," echoing a similar promise he made in a video released just prior to the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Responding to the truce proposal, the White House Press Secretary said, "We do not negotiate with terrorists. We put them out of business." But the audio tape underscores the fact that bin Laden and al Qaeda remain very much in business and continue to plot harm against the United States. Over the last four years, Bush's policies have increased the threat of future attacks, while simultaneously undermining efforts to provide greater security for Americans in the event such an attack should occur.
Al-Qaeda Attacks on
AL QAEDA THREAT HAS GROWN: In an October 2003 memorandum, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked, "Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?" The Bush administration has since refused to provide an answer, but there is little doubt that by invading Iraq without a plan for stabilizing the country and with too few troops, the Bush administration has created a haven for terrorists where none existed before. In May 2004, the London-based Institute for Strategic Studies reported that "al-Qaeda's recruitment and fundraising efforts had been given a major boost by the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It estimated that bin Laden's network today commands some 18,000 men, of which about 1,000 are currently inside Iraq." Al Qaeda's influence has not only metastasized in Iraq, where bin Laden-ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi continues bloody attacks on a daily basis, but the group has also reemerged in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Defense Minister recently claimed that "Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has increased its activities in Afghanistan, smuggling in explosives, high-tech weapons and millions of dollars in cash for a resurgent terror campaign." OSAMA BEEN FORGOTTEN: A month prior to 9/11, Bush received a President's Daily Brief warning, "Bin Ladin determined to strike in US." But Bush failed to act on the information, acknowledging later that he was "not on point. ... I didn't feel that sense of urgency." When asked shortly after the 9/11 attacks whether he wanted bin Laden dead, President Bush responded, "I want justice. There's an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" In early December 2001, Bush was given an opportunity to capture or kill bin Laden when CIA paramilitary officers determined bin Laden was hiding in the mountains of Tora Bora, Afghanistan. Gary Bertsen, the CIA veteran who led the team, requested that 800 U.S. Army Rangers be deployed in the area to prevent bin Laden's escape. Again, Bush failed to act; bin Laden managed to get away, and he has remained free ever since. By 2002, Bush turned his attention to Iraq and put bin Laden out of his mind, stating, "I just don't spend that much time on him. ... I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him." Since that time, bin Laden's influence has spread throughout the world; his al Qaeda organization is "now more a brand than a tight-knit group," encouraging new adherents to act spontaneously in its name." Vice President Cheney acknowledges, "Even if bin Laden were no longer to be a factor, I still think we would have problems with al Qaeda." GLOBAL TERRORISM ON THE RISE: McClellan claimed yesterday that the Bush administration is "taking the fight to the enemy; we are working to advance freedom and democracy, to defeat their evil ideology. We are winning." But the increasing numbers of global terrorist acts over the past few years belies any notion that we are winning. The World Economic Forum, for instance, recently called efforts to eliminate terrorism "largely unsuccessful" last year. Using the Bush administration's own statistics, the problem of international terrorism is worse now than it was in 2001. According to State Department data, the number of international terrorist attacks tripled to 650 in 2004. (The 175 international terrorist attacks in 2003 was itself a 20-year high.) After revealing the disappointing numbers, the State Department decided to stop publishing its annual report. Another Bush administration agency, the National Counterterrorism Threat Center, found that 3,192 incidents of international terrorism occurred last year, resulting in the "deaths, injury or kidnapping of almost 28,500 people." HOMELAND SECURITY: In the audio tape yesterday, bin Laden explicitly warned that he is preparing to strike again. "The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your homes the minute they are through," he said. Former White House counterterrorism director Richard Clarke wondered, "Would he say that and risk being proved wrong, if he can't pull it off in a month or so?" Despite the threat of an imminent attack, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is not raising its public threat level. Many Americans express valid concerns that DHS is not prepared for another attack. Hurricane Katrina revealed that the federal government is not yet fully prepared to handle its emergency response and disaster recovery obligations. The 9/11 Public Discourse Project gave the Bush administration mostly low or incomplete grades on implementing the 9/11 Commission's recommendations. The bipartisan group's report raises serious questions about President Bush's leadership on keeping Americans safe. Former 9-11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean said, "We believe that the terrorists will strike again; so does every responsible expert that we have talked to. And if they do, and these reforms that might have prevented such an attack have not been implemented, what will our excuse be?" |
On June 22, 2006, Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the international community to reassess its approach to the war on terror, claiming that there has not been enough focus on the roots of terrorism itself. "I strongly believe...that we must engage strategically in disarming terrorism by stopping their sources of supply of money, training, equipment and motivation," he said.
|
|
Suggested Links:
|
||||
 |
|
||||
United States Once Supported Bin LadenFebruary 14, 2008 As America fought wars around the globe in the 20th century, one principle guided U.S. alliances: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. In the war against Hitler, the United States found common cause with Stalin. In the war against Japan, America aided Vietnamese rebel Ho Chi Minh. In Third World struggles, America helped Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein. And as Afghan rebels fought Soviet invaders in the During the 1980s, the United States gave aid from afar while Saudi exile Osama Bin Laden provided support from within Afghanistan. In 1988, with U.S. knowledge, Bin Laden created al-Qaeda (The Base); a conglomerate of quasi-independent Islamic terrorist cells spread across 26 or so countries. Bin Laden emerged quickly after the September 11th attack on America as the prime suspect, directing a global network of terrorists from camps in Afghanistan. His apparent role in the attacks and the possibility of retaliation generated acute interest in Omaha, home to about 300 former Afghan refugees and the nation's only Center for Afghanistan Studies. Before most of the world knew who Bin Laden was, Thomas Gouttierre, director of the Afghan program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), spent several months studying him for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan in 1996 and '97. Gouttierre, who has 39 years experience dealing with Afghanistan, used his sources to confirm for then U.N. Secretary General — Boutros Boutros Ghali — that Bin Laden had returned to Afghanistan after leaving Sudan. In his office, Gouttierre still has his Bin Laden file, including maps showing the locations of his training camps in the mountainous Central Asian nation. The UNO scholar never met Bin Laden but saw his compound in the city of Kandahar and once saw his motorcade pass as the terrorist leader traveled protected by security vehicles. Gouttierre also spent part of his U.N. duty meeting and studying the Taliban, radical Muslim clerics who were and still are fighting for control of Afghanistan. The Taliban reportedly controlled about 95 percent of the country. Even before the September 11th attack, the United States and the United Nations had called for the Taliban to turn Bin Laden over to face trial for previous terrorist bombings. Such a demand was unrealistic, Gouttierre said. "The Talibs were not as powerful as Osama Bin Laden", he said. "It's more likely that he could have thrown them out". When Gouttierre was in Kandahar in 1999, he said, Afghans told him that most advisers to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban's top leader, were Pakistanis. Since then, he said, Arabs tied to Bin Laden have gained influence with Omar.
The rural clerics of the Taliban had little education or sophistication, he said, and relied heavily on the outsiders in their fledgling efforts to govern. "The Taliban have kind of become almost a junior partner in the strategic plans of Osama Bin Laden and the Pakistani extremist elements", Gouttierre said. Abdul Raheem Yaseer, an Afghan native who is campus coordinator of UNO's Center for Afghanistan Studies, described the situation bluntly: "Osama Bin Laden is the master. How could a servant hand in his master?" Western outrage toward Afghanistan has taken on new meaning in the wake of the September 11th attack, but Americans were outraged at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan 22 years ago. The United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics. President Jimmy Carter embargoed exports to the Soviet Union. And the CIA funneled arms and other support to the Mujahedeen, Afghanistan's "freedom fighters". Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, saw Afghanistan as a potential Vietnam for the Soviets' "Evil Empire". Thousands of Muslim radicals joined the CIA and mujahedeen, including Bin Laden, the wealthy son of a Saudi road builder. Though he didn't actually take up arms, he helped build roads and arms depots, using his own funds and CIA money. "We funded him, we and the Saudis", said Glynn Wood, professor of international policy at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. "He was not seen as any kind of threat until Desert Storm". Pakistani investigative journalist Ahmed Rashid reported recently that the CIA funded an underground arms depot, training facility and medical center that Bin Laden helped build in 1986 near the Pakistan border. There Bin Laden set up his first training camp. Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., likened the situation to the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, where the United States aided a future adversary, Hussein. American policies contributed to the environment that exists today, he said, "but it was an inadvertent action". The United States provided many of the arms used by all the forces in Afghanistan. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said he's received reports that Bin Laden or sympathizers might have shoulder-fired Stinger missiles the U.S. supplied to resistance fighters. Sen. Chuck Hagel, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said blaming U.S. policy for today's troubles is too simplistic. The region is incredibly complex politically and socially, the Nebraska Republican said, as were the Cold War calculations that drove foreign policy. "It's always easy to look back at a policy 20 years ago and say we made a mistake", Hagel said. "I suppose you could make a case we made an error to support the mujahedeen to drive out communism in Afghanistan", he said. But allowing communism to control the country also would have been bad, considering its proximity to Pakistan and Iran. "The reality in those days", Hagel said, "was anything that hurt the Soviets we did". |
|||||
To enlarge one of the following pictures, click on it.
Most mainstream religions have their extremists. Muslim clerics and Muslim nationals the world over have condemned — and continue to condemn — Osama Bin Laden in the strongest possible terms (see American Academy of Religion).
What would Christians think and do, for instance, if Christian Identity, that white supremacist, racist "religion", ruled a country like Afghanistan? It would be embarrassing and uncomfortable at the least; at worst, if the group encouraged terrorism and harbored terrorists who acted on its beliefs, Christians would probably feel just about like the vast majority of Muslims around the world feel now.
Islam is one of three major monotheistic world religions, with Judaism and Christianity. There are more than 1.2 billion Muslims around the world, but Arabs make up only about 18 percent of that number. Between 6 million and 7 million Muslims live in the United States. Islam is the principal religion in much of Asia and the Mideast, some African nations and, in Europe, Albania. Nations including Bosnia and Bulgaria have significant Muslim populations, and France, Germany and Great Britain have sizable immigrant communities.
Islam may be perceived as more Arab than, say, Indonesian, the country with the world's largest Muslim population, because Allah revealed the Divine Word to Mohammed, the Prophet of Islam, in Arabic. That is the language used in Islamic religious practice worldwide. Its holy book is the Qur'an, or, as it is commonly written in English, the Koran.
Muslims believe in final reward and punishment and in the unity of the community of Islam. Practicing Muslims pray five times daily and do not eat pork or drink alcohol. It is important for Muslims to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy city, if they are physically and financially able. Charity is a major tenet of the religion; Muslims are required to donate 2.5 percent of their net assets and savings each year to charity, excluding their homes and cars, but voluntary charity beyond that is common.
The 2001 edition of the Columbia Encyclopedia says that "Islam views the Message of Mohammed as the continuation and the fulfillment of a lineage of Prophecy that includes figures from the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, notably Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus".
Just as the extremists who practice Christian Identity mock the core beliefs of mainstream Christianity, so Osama Bin Laden and his horde of fanatics pervert the tenets of Islam. Most Muslims, in the United States and elsewhere, deplore what has happened just as bitterly and with just as much sorrow as do Christians and Jews around the world.
"An appeaser is one who feeds a
crocodile -- hoping it will eat him last."
— Sir Winston
Leonard Spencer Churchill
NOTES:
The 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center killed about 3,000 Americans. The emissions from coal-fired power plants in the USA kills an estimated 30,000 Americans each year.
Some of the financial support for Osama Bin Laden's attack on Americans comes from foreign countries who export oil to America. We can reduce Osama's income by using less imported oil.
By reducing our need for imported oil, we can become better prepared for future oil embargoes, wartime shortages, and the coming oil shortages due to natural limitations.
Was Bush administration "reckless" on post-9/11 health risks?
