Islamic Terrorism and Public Relations by James Dunnigan December 11, 2004
http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/200412112.asp Nearly all international terrorism is basically religious violence by Islamic radicals. The cause of the terrorism is not poverty or politics, but the paranoia of Islamic clerics unable to deal with increasing social change. It is the Islamic clerics who are preaching and supporting the terrorism. There are far more poor Hindus, Buddhists and Christians in the world, yet the terrorism is mainly by Islamic radicals. This pattern is no accidents. Many of the terrorist attacks are encouraged, supported and financed by Islamic charities and wealthy donors in the Persian Gulf. Another major source of funding, Arab migrants in Europe and North America, has been greatly reduced by police action, and repugnance at the attacks made by the terrorists. Moreover, the solicitations in Europe and North American increasingly played down the possibility of the money supporting violence. But the charities have not been able to cover their tracks. Last weekend, German police carried out raids on 34 sites believed to be part of the Al-Aqsa organization. Al Aqsa has long collected money for Palestinians, but police investigations revealed that much of the money went to terrorist activities by the Hamas organization in Israel. Cracking down on donations from individuals in the Persian Gulf is more difficult. Terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia have made it unpopular to give money to terrorists inside the kingdom. Yesterday's attack on an American consulate in the port city Jeddah was the first major terrorist operation in Saudi Arabia in seven months. It was a spectacular failure. No Americans were killed, and most of the dead were Saudis. Moreover, two of the five attackers were captured. This puts those who helped prepare the attacks at risk. Since al Qaeda attacks began in Saudi Arabia last year, the government has shown that it is capable of dealing with terrorism. Soon after the first attacks, the government released a list of the "26 most wanted." Since then, 17 of the people on that list have been killed, captured or surrendered. Parents of some of these terrorists have gone on television and publicly denounced their children. But the key to the government success in anti-terrorism is the network of tribal friendship and obligation that the royal family uses to control the country. This network, nourished by frequent meetings with tribal leaders, and members, is replicated by the police, who can always invoke a tribal chief, or Saudi prince, to get information. The Saudi police will often bumble around like Keystone Kops, but they are rarely ill-informed about what is happening on the street. Terrorists in Saudi Arabia must spend a lot of their time staying away from the cops, and police informers. Many al Qaeda attacks have been aborted because the police were on to it. A police visit to parents and tribal leaders would often be enough to discourage the terrorists. Although Saudi Arabia is the main source of Islamic conservatism, most Saudis are not willing to overthrow the monarchy (which Islamic radicals consider not Islamic enough), or support terrorism in their own country. Killing foreigners overseas is still considered OK. Terrorists are also learning that mass murder is bad PR. The Basque ETA group in Spain has resumed attacks, but in two instances of multiple bombings this month, they used low power bombs, and called in warnings. As a result, no one was killed, fewer than twenty were injured, and the terrorists made their point without being tagged as monsters. In Saudi Arabia, al Qaeda is trying to emulate this tactic by just attacking foreigners. But this does not work because so many Saudis work with foreigners. And the foreigners tend to have better security, meaning that attacks are more likely to kill Saudis. What really makes the Islamic terrorists fearsome is that they are willing to kill themselves while making their attacks, and their goal is world conquest. To attain their goal, they are willing to kill millions. The Islamic terrorists are not very efficient, or numerous. But they are real and they are trying. And they might just get lucky again like they did in September, 2001. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $4.98 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/Q7_YsB/neXJAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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