posted
It is only a matter of time before Israel becomes the target of a large scale attack launched by al-Qaida, Dr. Yoram Kahati, senior research fellow at the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies in Glilot told The Jerusalem Post.
The well coordinated double suicide bomb and car bomb attack that rocked Amman's hotels on Wednesday night, bear all the hallmarks of al-Qaida, and should be a cause of concern for Israel, he said. "The threat is coming closer. An attack in Jordan should serve as a red light [warning] that an attack in Israel is only a matter of time. Six months, a year, or three, it will happen, it will be large scale and launched in a central, populated area," he said.
Al-Qaida's trademark and strategy is to place more than one bomb at the target site to ensure that if one fails there is a backup. Using suicide bombers is also one of its strategies, as there is no danger of the perpetrators getting caught and executed, Kahati added.
While Jordan has a good intelligence network, cooperation with Israel in the security intelligence field has existed for many years, mainly to maintain a quiet border between the two countries. According to Kahati, if Israel had any information concerning plans to attack Jordan, it would have informed the authorities.
Kahati, who is also a research fellow at the International Policy Institute for Counter-terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, said he could not rule out the possibility that al-Qaida had infiltrated into the Gaza Strip. He bases his assumption on reports in the media by key IDF intelligence officials who assessed that operatives succeeded in entering Gaza via the Philadelphi Corridor during the days following the IDF pullout from Gaza, when the Rafah border crossing was turned into a free-for-all.
However, Kahati noted that it is not the first time that al-Qaida cells have attempted to infiltrate Israel. The terrorism expert mentioned that already in June 2000 the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) arrested Nabil Oukal at the Gaza border crossing. Oukal allegedly told investigators that he was recruited by al-Qaida to form a network in the Palestinian territories. According to Kahati, Oukal visited Afghanistan while studying in Pakistan before returning to his native Gaza.
In that same year, the Shin Bet also apprehended Jamal Aqel, a Palestinian with Canadian citizenship who likewise planned to set up an al-Qaida cell in Gaza and launch attacks against Israelis and Jews abroad, not just confine them to the Palestinian territories.
So far responsibility for the Amman attacks was claimed by the "al-Qaida Jihad" branch in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. According to Kahati, Zarqawi has an open account to settle with Jordan - the country of his origin and where he was imprisoned between 1994 to 1999, then pardoned by King Abdullah, before becoming the leader of the group at the end of 2004. However, Zarqawi also views the region as the ultimate area in which to launch his jihad, and uses Iraq as a springboard for his future plans. He identifies with the Palestinians because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and views the region as the site where the decisive battle between Muslims and infidels will occur. Kahati reported that Zarqawi had previously mentioned that the liberation of Jerusalem, which is considered the third most important place to Islam, is a high priority for him.
While the Amman bombings are a painful blow to Jordan and a slap in its face, they will not threaten the stability of the country or its strong regime.
Even though Jordanian authorities said Thursday that their security forces apprehended a number of suspects and vehicles, it will take some time before they succeed in tracking down someone from whom they will be able to glean information. "[Al-Qaida] cells operate independently, and while they uphold Osama bin-Laden's vision, they plan and recruit volunteers from all over the world," Kahati said. "Their volunteers are Arab, Muslim and westerners," he continued, "they believe that Jihad is the only effective way to achieve their results." They have the patience to build their support network and plan attacks; their ideology appeals to the young generation, especially those who studied Islam. Persuasion triggers motivation and the belief that it is worthy to die for the cause. Unable to confront the West's modern military technology, al-Qaida has turned the "art" of suicide bombing into an effective human weapon, Kahati says, realizing that terror causes damage, harms economies and creates fear.
While such a large network needs funds, Kahati believes that al-Qaida receives the money to finance its operations from so-called charity organizations, either via couriers or banks dotted throughout the world. While no documents have surfaced regarding the network's funding, it is clear that al-Qaida operations cannot continue to operate without funds being made available to purchase weapons and pay those who flock to its ranks.
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posted
The 9/11 attack is actually working out in al-Qaida's favor, thanks to the Bush Administration's mishandling of Iraq.
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Iraq New Terror Breeding Ground War Created Haven, CIA Advisers Report
By Dana Priest Washington Post Staff Writer
Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of "professionalized" terrorists, according to a report released yesterday by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director's think tank.
Iraq provides terrorists with "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills," said David B. Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats. "There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will therefore disperse to various other countries."
Low's comments came during a rare briefing by the council on its new report on long-term global trends. It took a year to produce and includes the analysis of 1,000 U.S. and foreign experts. Within the 119-page report is an evaluation of Iraq's new role as a breeding ground for Islamic terrorists.
President Bush has frequently described the Iraq war as an integral part of U.S. efforts to combat terrorism. But the council's report suggests the conflict has also helped terrorists by creating a haven for them in the chaos of war.
"At the moment," NIC Chairman Robert L. Hutchings said, Iraq "is a magnet for international terrorist activity."
Before the U.S. invasion, the CIA said Saddam Hussein had only circumstantial ties with several al Qaeda members. Osama bin Laden rejected the idea of forming an alliance with Hussein and viewed him as an enemy of the jihadist movement because the Iraqi leader rejected radical Islamic ideals and ran a secular government.
Bush described the war in Iraq as a means to promote democracy in the Middle East. "A free Iraq can be a source of hope for all the Middle East," he said one month before the invasion. "Instead of threatening its neighbors and harboring terrorists, Iraq can be an example of progress and prosperity in a region that needs both."
But as instability in Iraq grew after the toppling of Hussein, and resentment toward the United States intensified in the Muslim world, hundreds of foreign terrorists flooded into Iraq across its unguarded borders. They found tons of unprotected weapons caches that, military officials say, they are now using against U.S. troops. Foreign terrorists are believed to make up a large portion of today's suicide bombers, and U.S. intelligence officials say these foreigners are forming tactical, ever-changing alliances with former Baathist fighters and other insurgents.
"The al-Qa'ida membership that was distinguished by having trained in Afghanistan will gradually dissipate, to be replaced in part by the dispersion of the experienced survivors of the conflict in Iraq," the report says.
According to the NIC report, Iraq has joined the list of conflicts -- including the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate, and independence movements in Chechnya, Kashmir, Mindanao in the Philippines, and southern Thailand -- that have deepened solidarity among Muslims and helped spread radical Islamic ideology.
At the same time, the report says that by 2020, al Qaeda "will be superseded" by other Islamic extremist groups that will merge with local separatist movements. Most terrorism experts say this is already well underway. The NIC says this kind of ever-morphing decentralized movement is much more difficult to uncover and defeat.
Terrorists are able to easily communicate, train and recruit through the Internet, and their threat will become "an eclectic array of groups, cells and individuals that do not need a stationary headquarters," the council's report says. "Training materials, targeting guidance, weapons know-how, and fund-raising will become virtual (i.e. online)."
The report, titled "Mapping the Global Future," highlights the effects of globalization and other economic and social trends. But NIC officials said their greatest concern remains the possibility that terrorists may acquire biological weapons and, although less likely, a nuclear device.
The council is tasked with midterm and strategic analysis, and advises the CIA director. "The NIC's goal," one NIC publication states, "is to provide policymakers with the best, unvarnished, and unbiased information -- regardless of whether analytic judgments conform to U.S. policy."
Other than reports and studies, the council produces classified National Intelligence Estimates, which represent the consensus among U.S. intelligence agencies on specific issues.
Yesterday, Hutchings, former assistant dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, said the NIC report tried to avoid analyzing the effect of U.S. policy on global trends to avoid being drawn into partisan politics.
Among the report's major findings is that the likelihood of "great power conflict escalating into total war . . . is lower than at any time in the past century." However, "at no time since the formation of the Western alliance system in 1949 have the shape and nature of international alignments been in such a state of flux as they have in the past decade."
The report also says the emergence of China and India as new global economic powerhouses "will be the most challenging of all" Washington's regional relationships. It also says that in the competition with Asia over technological advances, the United States "may lose its edge" in some sectors.
posted
You might want to ask bin Lauden about how sucessfull those attacks were. He's seen just about everyone he knows get killed and he has been on the run $hitting in caves for four years now... always afraid to hear the sound of a helicopter or plane... never knowing when the next sattelite will pass overhead. Remeber they said Saddam was living large as well... Turns out he was hiding in a small dirt hole breathing through a tube. NO ONE enjoys being saught by the US millitary. NO ONE.
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posted
besides... That is not the point of this thread. The point is that if Al Quaida attacks Israel on a large scale then you can expect to see a furious retalliation from Israel. Big Mistake on Al Quaida's part.
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posted
Bin Laden is apparently still alive. Granted, he may not be as comfortable as he was before 9/11...
Al Qaeda is apparently doing quite well. The Iraq occupation and the Abu Ghraib photos, featuring smiling Americans next to piles of hooded Muslims, are probably the best recruiting tools they could have hoped for.
Posts: 3243 | From: California | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
First of all... how would you know... does your computer log and track the IP's of every person who views this page? What's the point of bringing up a topic that was dealt with a year ago? What's the point of keeping it alive? The only reason is to aid in your desire to show this administration is evil at it's core... you forget that abu graib was only a few morons who acted badly.. it was not a direct order from the prez himself. Before you post it... show me a document from the white house... don't post a link from liberalcommiesRus.com.
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posted
What's the point of bringing up a topic that was dealt with a year ago?
Because, whether or not they were actually "dealt with a year ago," they still exist as a highly effective recruiting tool for Al Qaeda.
Posts: 3243 | From: California | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
My point wasn't to "help America," my point was to prove my point. LOL
I wonder if the guys 'n' gals who made these photos thought they were helping America. Hmmm...
Posts: 3243 | From: California | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Does not matter what the war tells the arabs. We have been targeted for 25 years. The war is not making it worse. Only bringing it to the fore front. Only with 9/11, did the average person all of a sudden say, hey what is this for. We have been fighting these people for 25 years, and lots of mistakes along the way has allowed it to continue and grow worse. Iraq maybe another mistake, the way it is being handled?????? But regardless, these people would hate us any way.
Posts: 172 | Registered: Oct 2003
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QUOTE:"So you are in essence trying to harm America by posting these pictures repeatedly. Your "point" is detremental to this country."
No, anybody with an ounce of thought recognizes that it was the doing of the deeds pictured that has harmed America. Trying to hide them or suppress them is doing more harm. Are you really so dense that you can believe that those activities weren't well known across the Arab world before they sneaked from behind the curtain the Pentagon and the Administration held between the American public and the facts?
Arabs have a different culture than we do but they are not dumb and they recognize pure meanness and evil just like we do. Don't compound the ill will by claiming what was done was acceptable. That just confirms their feelings.
By trying to supress the facts or claim they should be condoned,
you are, in essence, harming America.Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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