Iraq war a diversion from anti-al Qaeda campaign

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

[comments?]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Cole, Juan <jrcole@xxxxxxxxx>

"A String of attacks that will continue and become stronger"

The failure of the Bush administration to take the threat of Bin Laden
and Zawahiri seriously and to capture them continues to leave
Americans and others at risk.

British authorities have arrested 21 members of a terror cell,
apparently British-born or British-bred persons of Pakistani or South
Asian origin. They were planning to hijack 6 to 10 American planes at
Heathrow Airport in London, and to bring on board liquid-based
explosives that they would mix while sitting in their seats.

Regular readers know that I believe that Ayman al-Zawahiri has been
recruiting terrorists in Britain, using al-Qaeda-affiliated radical
Pakistani groups such as Lashkar-e Tayyiba or Jaish Muhammad.
Al-Zawahiri had in his possession the suicide statement tapes of
Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer. Many UK Muslims of South
Asian origin are from Mirpur in Kashmir, so these Kashmir-oriented
affiliates of al-Qaeda have special appeal to them. (South Asian
Muslims tend to feel that Kashmir was illegitimately grabbed by India
and is being oppressed by a Hindu state.) Why did al-Zawahiri have
these tapes in his possession, and why was he commenting on them?

On 7/7, 2006, Zawahiri released the final tape of Shehzad Tanweer: He said,

"What you have witnessed now is only the beginning of a string of
attacks that will continue and become stronger." . . . Tanweer says in
a Yorkshire accent on the film that attacks will continue "until you
pull your forces out of Afghanistan and Iraq".

Even if this cell is not directly connected to Zawahiri, that he and
Bin Laden can come on television and the internet and continue to
encourage copycate al-Qaeda-style attacks is a huge security problem
that needs to be solved much more urgently than the problem of which
clans rule the small city of Ramadi in Iraq.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have contributed to the
radicalization of second-generation UK Muslims. They oppose those wars
by a large margin. Some 80 percent of UK Muslims oppose the Iraq War,
and only 10 percent approve of it. The Israeli treatment of the
Palestinians is also a matter of great concern to them, and a
radicalizing factor for young people.

Only 1 percent of UK Muslims believe that the 7/7 bombings were
"right." But 13 percent of UK Muslims (who are about 1.6 million
persons in a population of 60 million) believe that the 7/7 bombers
are martyrs. Another 16 percent believe that while their action was
wrong, their cause was just.

On the other hand, 56 percent of UK Muslims think that their
government is not doing enough to combat extremism, and nearly half
want surveillance of mosques. About a third say they would be proud if
a family member joined the British police. The community is clearly
deeply divided, with a minority attracted by extremism and a majority
that is very worried about it and wants something done.

--
Jim Devine / "In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to
be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But
in economics, it's the exact opposite." --- Paul Dirac [edited]