Perilous Times
Al-Qaeda vows to 'bleed enemy to death'
November 21, 2010 - 4:29PM
AFP
The Yemen-based branch of Al-Qaeda has vowed to continue attacks
against the West such as last month's cargo plane parcel bombs, in a
"strategy of a thousand cuts" that will "bleed the enemy to death", a
monitoring group said.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said the packages it put
aboard freight planes bound for the US in late October were never
intended to cause mass casualties, but were aimed at creating maximum
economic damage.
The group said the parcels, which were intercepted by security
officials in Dubai and Britain, were part of Operation Hemorrhage a
plan that had cost just $US4200 ($A4253) to mount.
It said there was now little focus on large-scale mass-casualty attacks
like those on New York and Washington in September 2001.
"To bring down America we do not need to strike big," the terror
network said, in an English-language magazine called Inspire.
"In such an environment of security phobia that is sweeping America, it
is more feasible to stage smaller attacks that involve less players and
less time to launch and thus we may circumvent the security barriers
America worked so hard to erect.
"This strategy of attacking the enemy with smaller, but more frequent
operations is what some may refer to as the strategy of a thousand
cuts. The aim is to bleed the enemy to death."
The two parcels were addressed to synagogues in Chicago and found to
contain the hard-to-detect explosive PETN hidden in ink toner
cartridges.
A massive global security clampdown on airfreight followed the
discovery, with a number of countries banning cargo or flights
originating from Yemen, including the United States, Canada and several
western European countries.
The AQAP magazine details the "total bill of $US4200" for Operation
Hemorrhage, adding that it was three months in the planning and
execution.
"On the other hand this ... will without a doubt cost America and other
Western countries billions of dollars in new security measures. This is
what we call leverage.
"From the start our objective was economic ... It was determined that
the success of the operation was to be based on two factors: The first
is that the packages pass through the latest security equipment.
"The second, the spread of fear that would cause the West to invest
billions of dollars in new security procedures.
"We will continue with similar operations and we do not mind at all in
this stage if they are intercepted. It is such a good bargain for us to
spread fear amongst the enemy and keep him on his toes in exchange of a
few months of work and a few thousand bucks."
The magazine says AQAP intends to pass on its know-how to other radical
Islamists around the world, to encourage them to mount similar
operations.
"We are laying out for our enemies our plan in advance because ... our
objective is not maximum kill but to cause a hemorrhage in the aviation
industry, an industry that is so vital for trade and transportation
between the US and Europe."