Title: Message
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Suicide bombing: no warning, and no total
solutionBy John DalySuicide bombers are the most feared
weapons in the arsenal of political activists. Unlike the bombing campaigns of
the IRA or ETA, to give two examples, there is no telephone warning; the act
itself and its resultant chaos announce the attack. While some attacks are
successful against military targets, most are carried out against civilians. As
a Hamas training manual notes, it is foolish to hunt the tiger when there are
plenty of sheep around. Since the technique was first perfected in the
early 1980s, it has been grimly successful, most recently in the wrenching 11
September attacks in New York and Washington. While Sri Lanka and Palestine
generate the most suicide bombings, the attacks against the USA dwarf all others
in their planning, complexity and success. Individual suicide bombers present
military and security officials with difficult detection and prevention problems
for improvised explosive devices. Israel has developed a proactive approach with
its targeted killings programme, but the long-term viability of such an
operation remains to be seen.Prior to 11 September, the USA had
relatively few, albeit violent, encounters with Middle Eastern suicide bombers.
On 23 October 1982, a truck with 2,268lb (5,000kg) of explosives detonated after
a Hizbullah driver rammed it into the barracks in Beirut, killing 241 US Marines
who had been part of a deployment under the Reagan Plan to protect the PLOs
withdrawal from the country. Shortly thereafter, suicide bombers attacked the
French military compound across the city with an 816lb (1,800kg) bomb, killing
58 personnel.The bombing of the USS Cole on 12 October 2000 killed 17
sailors and inflicted US$243 million damage on the warship. Investigators
strongly suspected the involvement of Usama bin Ladin in the attack. Security
postures of American forces in the Middle East were beefed up, but US policy
towards Bin Ladin remained to isolate and track him, rather than attempt a
direct assault. It is a decision that in hindsight many regret.For the
USA, far worse was to come. Since the Palestinian Intifada began a year ago,
fundamentalist rhetoric has increasingly twinned American policy with that of
Israel. Many desired to see Israel, the defiler of the two Muslim holy places,
and its armaments supplier humbled. The terrorist attack on the USA on 11
September dwarfs all terrorist attacks before it. As this article is written,
the death toll stands at an estimated 5,155 dead, a number certain to rise in
the grim days ahead. The statistics for the attacks stun the imagination. The
World Trade Center was destroyed and the Pentagon badly damaged when three
hijacked aircraft were crashed into them. A fourth aircraft was hijacked from
Newark, NJ and crashed 80 miles (129km) west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was
suspected that the planes target was the presidential retreat of Camp David,
Maryland and that a struggle with passengers crashed it. A total of 266 people
died in the crashes. Insurance industry experts estimate the final cost of the
attacks could range from $5-25 billion.. . .Not that the warning
signs werent there. Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of Londons al-Quds al-Arabi
newspaper, told Reuters that Bin Ladin warned three weeks ago that he would
attack American interests in an unprecedented way. Jamal Ismail, Abu Dhabi
Televisions bureau chief in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, stated that an
aide of Usama bin Ladin called him from Afghanistan and stated that Bin Ladin
praised the people who carried out the attacks, calling the attacks a
punishment from Allah.The attacks destroyed more than buildings and
lives; they laid bare the shortcomings of the US intelligence network, from its
hardware to its analysts. It also exposed the lack of a viable government policy
against terrorism.. . .Religious motivationSuicide
attacks serve other purposes besides inflicting damage. First, they generate the
maximum amount of publicity for the cause, and second, they force outside
intervention. The emergence of 24-hour global news networks such as CNN and the
explosive growth of the internet have enabled virtual global
awareness.Ideological support of suicide bombings in the Middle East is
not hard to come by. While the Quran in Surah an-Nisaa (Chapter: The Women),
verse 29 seems specifically to forbid suicide, the chapters 75th verse enjoins
that fighting oppression is commendable. This ambiguity extends to the clergy.
In 1997, Jerusalems Grand Mufti Ekrima Sabri, Imam of the al-Aqsa Mosque and
Palestines most important religious figure, commented in an interview: The
person who sacrifices his life as a Muslim will know if God accepts it and
whether it is for the right reason. God in the end will judge him and whether he
did that for a
