Another London Attack Within 3 weeks?
hummingbird
Frightening reminder that past terror attacks around the world
have all been *preceded* by a video tape from ObL or Zawahri...
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GH06Ak01.html
Ayman al-Zawahri, one of the most senior figures in al-Qaeda, has
warned Britain and the US to expect more attacks unless they get their
troops out of Iraq and all other Muslim countries.
He also warned that London will face new terrorist outrages because of
Prime Minister Tony Blair's foreign policy decisions.
He added, "Blair has brought you destruction to the heart of London,
and he will bring more destruction, God willing." These new threats
were made in a videotape that was broadcast on al-Jazeera TV.
This alarming statement also further establishes a link between the
invasion of Iraq and the London bombings and is one that is becoming
ever more obvious to the great majority of people, but not yet, it
would seem, to the British prime minister.
--Another attack within three weeks?--
Even more significantly, this most recent statement must be seen in
the context of previous events as Zawahri's words often appear to be
used to trigger al-Qaeda cells around the world to stage attacks.
-Some of these include:-
On August 7, 1998 Islamic suicide bombers blew up the US embassies in
Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, killing more than 220 people. This followed
a statement by Zawahri the previous day.
On October 9, 2002 another Zawahri tape threatened more attacks
on the US and its allies. Three days later, the Bali nightclub bombs
killed more than 200 people, mostly Westerners.
On October 1, 2004 Zawahri called on Muslims worldwide to help in the
Palestinian struggle. Six days later, al-Qaeda attacked three Egyptian
tourist resorts in the Sinai, killing 34 people, about half of them
Israelis.
On November 29, 2004, in a video statement Zawahri said that the US
invasion of Baghdad was only the beginning of a Western occupation.
Terrorists attacked the US consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on the
morning of December 6, killing eight and wounding 15 others.
On June 17, Zawahri spoke again. On July 7 four bombs ripped
through London's transport system, killing nearly 60, including the
four suicide bombers.
On August 4, this senior al-Qaeda leader issued perhaps the most
specific threat of an attack on Western interests. If the pattern is
repeated, a major terrorist outrage will be carried out within the
next three weeks. Britain is again considered to be one of the most
likely targets.
--Al-Qaeda confirms Iraq link--
It would now be increasingly hard to argue that even if the war in
Iraq is not the sole motivation for recent acts of terrorism, it must
still be a major contributory factor behind the suicide bomb attacks
in London.
This would appear to be a clear and understandable fact to most
observers, but any such linkage is still being vigorously denied by
Blair.
He was forced on to the defensive over the London bomb attacks for
the first time on July 19, when a leaked threat assessment from the
Joint Terrorist Analysis Center (JTAC) - an integral part of the
British security service, MI5 - specifically warned less than a month
before the July 7 attacks that "events in Iraq are continuing to act
as motivation and a focus of a range of terrorist-related activity in
the UK".
The report, leaked to The New York Times, also said "at present there
is not a group with both the current intent and the capability to
attack the UK", a flawed conclusion that only increased the pressure
on the intelligence community to explain its failure to anticipate the
possibility that the capital would be a prime terrorist target on the
opening day of the Group of Eight summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.
Nor is the JTAC assessment alone in establishing a link between the
bombing of London and Britain's involvement in Iraq.
Chatham House, previously known as The Royal Institute of
International Affairs and an internationally respected foreign affairs
think-tank, stated in a new report that the war in Iraq had boosted
al-Qaeda.
The Chatham House report also highlighted the growing problems the
security services have when it rather bluntly says that Britain's
ability to carry out counter-terrorism measures had been hampered
because the US was always in the driving seat in deciding policy.
--US alliance puts UK at risk--
It goes on to claim that Britain's security efforts have been severely
hampered as "riding pillion with a powerful ally has proved costly in
terms of British and US military lives, Iraqi lives, military
expenditure and the damage caused to the counter-terrorism campaign".
The most politically sensitive finding, however, concludes there is
"no doubt" the invasion of Iraq has "given a boost to the al-Qaeda
network in propaganda, recruitment and fundraising", while providing
an ideal targeting and training area for terrorists.
Blair has strenuously denied such a claim and senior ministers have
responded to these arguments by saying that the attacks on New York
and Washington on September 11 pre-dated the Iraq war and that the
root causes of al-Qaeda terrorism were non-negotiable, such as the
existence of the state of Israel.
--The war in Iraq: Complete coverage--
Critics have pointed out, however, that while the Iraq war is not
necessarily the root cause of this new threat of home-grown terrorism,
it may well have intensified the threat, as the JTAC assessment
appears to conclude.
Interestingly, it emerged during the Hutton inquiry into the death of
weapons expert David Kelly that the prime minister had been warned by
the intelligence services that the planned invasion of Iraq could
increase the terrorist threat to Britain. The leaked JTAC report was
therefore simply the first official post-war confirmation of a
probable link between the Iraq war and terrorist activity in Britain.
Just 10 days after the first wave of bombing, former Labour cabinet
minister Clare Short insisted that she had no doubt the July 7 London
bombings were linked to Iraq and Palestine. Interviewed on GMTV, Short
said, "We are implicit in the slaughter of large numbers of civilians
in Iraq and supporting a Middle East policy that for the Palestinians
creates this sense of double standards - that feeds anger."
--Growing political criticism of Blair--
In a further damaging attack on the prime minister's position, John
McDonnell, the Labour member of parliament for Hayes and Harlington
and Chair of the Campaign Group of Labour MPs, said it was
"intellectually unsustainable" to say the war in Iraq had not
motivated the London bombers.
"For as long as Britain remains in occupation of Iraq, the terrorist
recruiters will have the argument they seek to attract more
susceptible young recruits to the bomb team. Britain must withdraw
now," he said.
By July 19, a public opinion poll in The Guardian newspaper was able
to report that two-thirds of Britons now believed that there was an
identifiable link between Blair's decision to invade Iraq and the
recent London bombings, despite the government claims to the contrary.
The poll found that that some 75% of voters believed that further
attacks in Britain by suicide bombers were also inevitable.
But despite the mounting evidence that a link exists and that the
government is losing the battle to persuade people that terrorist
attacks on the UK have not been made more likely by the invasion of
Iraq, Blair has continued to lay the blame for the terrorist attacks
simply on the "twisted teaching" of Islam and put the onus on Muslim
leaders to defeat such an "evil".
--The buck must stop with Blair--
The British government is still in denial that the bombings have any
connection with the invasion of Iraq or its involvement in the US-led
"war on terrorism". The close alliance with the US and Britain's
involvement in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq may not justify
terrorism, but they are an added motivation.
Many Muslims would argue that the empty threat posed by Saddam
Hussein's non-existent weapons of mass destruction provided little or
no justification for the eventual invasion of Iraq and the deaths of
tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians.
It is often conveniently forgotten that al-Qaeda in its original form
was an American creation. Trained, equipped and directed by the
Central Intelligence Agency, Osama bin Laden's organization tortured
and killed countless young Russian conscripts unlucky enough to have
been posted to Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda was certainly not unwilling to
also kill and maim large numbers of Afghan civilians in pursuit of
America's regional interests.
--Double standards in the 'war on terrorism'--
Nor is al-Qaeda the only organization linked to terrorism to have a US
paymaster. Even allowing for Indonesia, Zaire and countless tin-pot
Latin American military dictatorships, one country in particular
stands out. Pakistan and its despised secret service, the
Inter-Services Intelligence have a long history of actively supporting
so-called "freedom fighters".
What in fact the Pakistan authorities armed were the Taliban in
Afghanistan and the Kashmiri Islamic fighters who are responsible for
decades of terrorism inside Indian territory and the deaths of tens of
thousands of civilians in the world's largest democracy.
Yet the government in Islamabad is treated as one of Washington's
closest allies in the "war on terror".
Hypocrisy on this scale practiced by the supposed leader of the free
world is not a pretty sight, nor is it the basis for a successful
foreign policy. Britain by virtue of its uncritical and unwavering
support for American actions risks becoming a major victim of an
Islamic backlash.
While Iraq is a motivation for terrorism, it is certainly not the only
cause.
The occupation of Arab lands; the aggressive acquisition of Arab oil;
the plight of Palestinian refugees housed in squalid camps for some 55
years; Israel's bloody invasion of Lebanon and its later attempts to
suppress the Palestinian intifada; the lack of a truly even-handed
Western policy on the Middle East's fundamental problems; Afghanistan;
Iraq and the threat to Iran all provide the driving force behind the
upsurge of Islamic terrorism.
It is fair to suggest that terrorism, unless linked to a poplar
political movement, has never succeeded in its stated aims in the
long run. However, it is equally correct to say that the defeat of
terrorism is only ensured by winning over the hearts and minds of
the extremist's potential supporters and with a policy as free of
blinkered unreality and hypocrisy as possible.
While there can never be an acceptable justification for acts of
terrorism, there can be no escaping the fact of a link between the
British government's actions in the Middle East and the reaction of
Muslim extremism.
Following these new threats of an imminent large-scale strike by
Islamic terrorists against British targets, further denial by Blair
and his ministers of at least some responsibility for the
deteriorating security situation will only make them appear ever
more foolish and increasingly out of touch with both reality and
the majority of the British people
____________________________________________________
Richard M Bennett is an intelligence and security analyst.
--
smart men solve problems, wise men avoid them.
news
"hummingbird" <XSJCLS...@spammotel.com> wrote in message
news:t7gaf15bci9hpphvf...@4ax.com...
zucht
fulco
> "It's All About Iraq!"
> Frightening reminder that past terror attacks around the world
> have all been *preceded* by a video tape from ObL or Zawahri...
> http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GH06Ak01.html
[snip article]
My guess is that it will be the States this time - big time, whilst
Georgie boy is on holiday, hiding from what looks like imminent
prosecution for war crimes, if Skolnick is correct...
More smoke and mirrors, with accent on the former.
fulco
hummingbird
mysteriously appeared thru the usenet mist to inform us thus...
>hummingbird wrote:
>
>> "It's All About Iraq!"
>> Frightening reminder that past terror attacks around the world
>> have all been *preceded* by a video tape from ObL or Zawahri...
>> http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GH06Ak01.html
>
>[snip article]
>
>My guess is that it will be the States this time - big time,
Possibly meaning that Tommy Franks' prediction will happen?:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/11/20/185048.shtml
>whilst
>Georgie boy is on holiday, hiding from what looks like imminent
>prosecution for war crimes, if Skolnick is correct...
It would indeed be a feast for the eyes :-)
>More smoke and mirrors, with accent on the former.
Maybe a new attack would provide the necessary distraction...
fulco
Of course! Rhetorical Q:-
What happened on the first full day of the recent G8 meeting explaining
that nothing would be done about poverty and less would be done about
climate change?
--
"A patriotic version of compassion is often the most potent weapon of
realpolitik. It is used to persuade us to ignore our own crimes and to
turn against "evildoers", official enemies often selected on the basis
of carefully hidden agendas." - Goldstein recast.
"There is a simple rule in politics: Kill a story before it kills you."
"Fear is an effective tool of the few when they want to scare many into
submitting to things they would otherwise not accept."
"War is the health of the state. It automatically sets in motion
throughout society irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate
cooperation with the government in coercing into obedience the minority
groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense." - Ralph
Bourne, 'War and the Intellectuals', 1964
"The contrast couldn't be clearer between the intentions and the hearts
of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty and
those who kill, those who have such evil in their heart that they will
take the lives of innocent folks," - C-in-C Bush, 'master' of Iraq -
7/7/2005
"Someone could legitimately say he's not Al Qaeda" - Rumsfeld on Zarqawi
"The mission isn't easy, and it will not be accomplished overnight,"
Bush said yesterday, two years after 'Mission Accomplished'...
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never
stop thinking about ways to harm our country and our people, and neither
do we." - George W. Bush, August 5, 2004
"The administration should clarify its intent in Viet Nam,’ he said.
‘People lack confidence in the credibility of our government.’ Even our
allies are beginning to suspect what we say, he charged. ‘It’s a
difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without
all the secrecy,’ he said. ‘With the secrecy, it’s impossible. The
American people will do what’s right when they have the information they
need." - D. Rumsfeld [Chicago Tribune, 4/13/66]
"More hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than
have ever been committed in the name of rebellion." - C.P. Snow
"Three individuals in particular are currently imprisoned for peacefully
petitioning their government -- and this should not be a crime in any
country." - Rice on Saudi Arabia but her remarks could equally apply to
the UK and US.
"I think we can say categorically we have not campaigned with the United
States government or any other government to take any sort of position
over Kyoto." - Exxon PA Nick Thomas, House of Lords, 2003
"News is what someone does not want you to print - the rest is
advertising" - Randolph Hearst, publisher
"Power is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power
through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of
democracy." - Bush on Iran, or was it Ohio?
"With regard to our factual findings, in brief, we find that there were
massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In
many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct
and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State Kenneth J.
Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio." - The
Conyers Report, US Congress, 2005
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over
and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the
propaganda." - G.W. Bush - May 24/05
"Most lies succeed because people want to believe them."
"We are endangered by freedom" - 26th World Zionist Congress
"I want to make very clear that I am deeply committed to the rule of
law. I have a deep and abiding commitment to the fundamental American
principle that we are a nation of laws, and not of men." - US Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in
moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification
for selfishness." - John Kenneth Galbraith
"It always seemed strange to me that the things we admire in men,
kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling
are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we
detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self
interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of
the first, they love the produce of the second." - John Steinbeck
"The psychopath will generally accuse others of the crimes for which he
himself is guilty."
"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves." -
Bertrand de Jouvenal
"The problem was signaled when the 9/11 attack on America did not
generate the enlistments expected." - Lt. Col. Charles Krohn
"Americans will vote for cornpone Nazis before they will give up their
entitlements to a McHouse and a McCar." - Kunstler 2005
"The biggest threat to the Republican majority is the relationship on K
Street [Washington] with corporate lobbyists and the corruption that is
entailed in that." - David Brooks, PBS - 2005
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of
fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison
"If countries that promised never to have nuclear weapons now see
weapons states holding open the option to test, some of them think, 'Why
should we give up nuclear weapons?' " - former US ambassador Thomas Graham.
'The [US government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the
risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body.' He
concluded, 'uranium does cause cancer, uranium does cause mutation, and
uranium does kill. If we continue with the irresponsible contamination
of the biosphere, and denial of the fact that human life is endangered
by the deadly isotope uranium, then we are doing disservice to
ourselves, disservice to the truth, disservice to God and to all
generations who follow.' - Dr. Asaf Durakovic, ex-Professor of Radiology
and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University, Washington
"BNFL's promotion of MOX fuel as a solution to the problem of increasing
stockpiles of plutonium does not stand up to scrutiny and the use of MOX
fuel in nuclear reactors will lead to more plutonium being produced
through the further reprocessing of this fuel when spent." - Irish
Parliamentary Debates 1998
"Christ is not speaking to the press at this time," - Pishevar
" "Everybody's renouncing violence except a small group of
ultra-hard-core right-wingers," said Mr. Durán, now a lawyer in Miami
advocating peaceful change in Cuba."
"I think the most important lesson is that we should not ever avoid
direct talks, direct conversations, direct discussions and negotiations
with the main person in a despised or misunderstood or condemned society
who could actually resolve the issue." - Carter on N.Korea, 1994 -
before the SDI was revived...
"When the autopsy of our democracy is performed, it is my belief that
media silence will be given as the primary cause of death." - J.Simon
"Democracy is when voters approve what their leaders propose, "populism"
comes when voters have ideas of their own." - D.Johnstone, 2005
"We are at the service of the truth: freedom is the most important." -
pResident Bush, May 2005
"Is it not true that [the anti-missle systems at the pentagon] are set
to fire automatically if the pentagon is approached by any aircraft not
sending out a 'friendly' signal from its transponder - meaning any
aircraft other than one belonging to the US military?" - Griffiths, p36
Analysis of 9/11 Commission report
"of course killing them was also a form of murder..." - abelard the
profound, 2005
"It has been a hard learning - that folks tend to believe what they want
to believe," wrote McGovern in an essay regarding [the Rycroft] memo.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html
"As long as our evidence, however abundant and persuasive, remained
circumstantial, it could not compel belief. It simply is much easier on
the psyche to assent to the White House spin machine blaming the Iraq
fiasco on bad intelligence than to entertain the notion that we were
sold a bill of goods. Well, you can forget circumstantial." - Ray
McGovern, CIA analyst
"The process of transformation, is likely to be a long one, absent some
catastrophic and catalyzing event "like a new Pearl Harbor." - PNAC
document, Sept 2000
"We have trickle-down profits, but 'vacuum up' spending" - Newberry
"His solution to anything that gets in the way on the ranch is to take a
chainsaw to it" - 1st Lady Mrs.Bush, April,2005
"Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it
may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy
issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely
perceived direct external threat." - American Primacy and Its
Geostrategic Imperatives by Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1997
"Helen, as I've told you many times, if this had anything to do with
oil, the position of the United States would be to lift the sanctions so
the oil could flow. This is not about that. This is about saving lives
by protecting the American people...." - Ari Fleischer, 2003
"Finally the US Department of Energy performed a radio-bio-essay on me
in November 1994, while I was director of the Depleted Uranium Project
for the Department of Defense. My excretion rate was approximately 1500
micrograms per day. My level was 5 to 6 times beyond the level that
requires continuous medical care. But they didn't tell me for two and a
half years." Major D.Rokke, US Army
"The US Army made me their expert. I went into the project with the
total intent to ensure they could use uranium munitions in war, because
I'm a warrior. What I saw as director of the project, doing the research
and working with my own medical conditions and everybody else's, led me
to one conclusion: uranium munitions must be banned from the planet, for
eternity, and medical care must be provided for everyone, not just the
US or the Canadians or the British or the Germans or the French but for
the American citizens of Vieques, for the residents of Iraq, of Okinawa,
of Scotland, of Indiana, of Maryland, and now Afghanistan and Kosovo." -
Major D.Rokke, US Army
"Moral insanity is not to be confused with intellectual insanity, which
is caused by chemical imbalances and such. Morally insane people retain
their intellectual powers but set their will toward evil." - Kimball, 2005
"you can’t let your own paradigms and beliefs get in the way of hearing
what you need to hear. The penalty for that is the ugly world we have
now." - Kaminski, 2005
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the
intelligent are full of doubt." - Bertrand Russell
'From penis to ICBM, the male's basic biological urge is to shoot at
targets' - anon
"I think the burden is on those people who think he didn't have weapons
of mass destruction to tell the world where they are." - Ari Fleischer,
July 2003
"'disagreement' is the language of the immature...." - abelard the
clown, 2005
"fortunately george bush appears to have much greater depth and vision
than this. " - abelard the absurd, 2005
"There is no evidence to support any allegation that GW Bush is not a
highly intelligent person. " - Anubis, 2005
"now crunch that lot....stick your finger up your rear...put it up into
the wind...sniff it....and do the best you can...." - just abelard, 2005
"Who has ever been able to satisfy the greedy maw of those harlots with
their own wealth? Who has been able to fill the bags of their cupidity
with their purses?" - Fulco, 12cAD
"you boiled up most foolishly into pride, the beginning and plague of
all evils. And, as those who came to hear you most often say, with an
air of boasting you esteemed all others, even the saints who had devoted
themselves to wisdom, as your inferiors just to show off." - Fulco on
abelard, 12cAD
"in the meanwhile adults like myself will spend much energy
attempting to educate you and perhaps even grow you up a little." -
abelard, our self-appointed paternoster, 2005
"Jesus H Christ, how demented can one adult be." - G.Henessy
"real truth comes in a plain wrapper" - anon
claire....@ntlworld.com
news wrote:
> Deploy troops - handle terrorists with rifles
Deploy troops where??? We already have 3000 armed police officer
deployed in London!
fulco
> On Sun, 07 Aug 2005 12:55:18 +0100, fulco <fu...@deuil.org>
> mysteriously appeared thru the usenet mist to inform us thus...
>
>
>>hummingbird wrote:
>>
>>
>>> "It's All About Iraq!"
>>>Frightening reminder that past terror attacks around the world
>>>have all been *preceded* by a video tape from ObL or Zawahri...
>>>http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GH06Ak01.html
>>
>>[snip article]
>>
>>My guess is that it will be the States this time - big time,
>
>
> Possibly meaning that Tommy Franks' prediction will happen?:
> http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/11/20/185048.shtml
Entirely possible. What a madness we live in.
>
>>whilst
>>Georgie boy is on holiday, hiding from what looks like imminent
>>prosecution for war crimes, if Skolnick is correct...
>
>
> It would indeed be a feast for the eyes :-)
>
Don't hold your breath.
>
>>More smoke and mirrors, with accent on the former.
>
>
> Maybe a new attack would provide the necessary distraction...
>
Of course! Rhetorical Q:-
What happened on the first full day of the recent G8 meeting explaining
that nothing would be done about poverty and less would be done about
climate change?
--
"The contrast couldn't be clearer between the intentions and the hearts
Independent_Voter
bombed. The Eiffel Tower was a target in 1999 by Al Qaeda...that was
before the Iraqi War and while Bush was governor of Texas so France was
not nor is it now in Iraq.
Al Qaeda terrorism has nothing to do with Palestine. How many
Palestinians were arrested in London over the last few weeks linked to
the London bombings and why would the Palestininans not be as angry as
Al Qaeda over the situation?
The only connection with Iraq is that Al Qaeda was allowed by Saddam
Hussein to open up training camps in Iraq. So, I guess, in a way you
ARE right and proving that both Blair and Bush were right in connecting
the Al Qaeda dots to Iraq in the first place. :)
Esther Feldman
and the 'jooze', who control America, (sorry Moronica).. Did you noe
that it woz the 'jooze' that really woz behind the Lundon bommings in
liason with Al Kaieeda? Yoo see they really luv eech uvver. I lurnt all
that from the BNP.
Hoo needs an edeukashun, when the Brittish narzi party will doo it for
yoo fer nuffin?
hummingbird
mysteriously appeared thru the usenet mist to inform us thus...
>All about Iraq? The last I heard Egypt was not in Iraq. They were
>bombed. The Eiffel Tower was a target in 1999 by Al Qaeda...that was
>before the Iraqi War and while Bush was governor of Texas so France was
>not nor is it now in Iraq.
>Al Qaeda terrorism has nothing to do with Palestine. How many
>Palestinians were arrested in London over the last few weeks linked to
>the London bombings and why would the Palestininans not be as angry as
>Al Qaeda over the situation?
>The only connection with Iraq is that Al Qaeda was allowed by Saddam
>Hussein to open up training camps in Iraq.
If you have evidence of this, I'm sure Bush would love to have it.
>So, I guess, in a way you
>ARE right and proving that both Blair and Bush were right in connecting
>the Al Qaeda dots to Iraq in the first place. :)
--
hummingbird
mysteriously appeared thru the usenet mist to inform us thus...
>Not to menshernn that it's all being controlled and financed by Israel
You should try a better ISP than OneTel ...they seem to scrambling
your posts.