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Panelist's View

What Today's Air Terror Plot Means

Lahore, Pakistan - The terror plot uncovered by the British police today shows the hallmarks of al Qaeda operations and suggests that the alienation of Muslim immigrants from Western societies continues to aid terrorist recruitment. The plot's timing was likely meant to protest U.S. and British support for Israel's bombing of Lebanon.

The tactics and strategies employed by a variety of Islamic extremists can be seen in this thwarted plot. In homage to 9/11, these terrorists planned to use airplanes as weapons of mass destruction even though many analysts had concluded that tightened security at airports would prevent extremists from exploiting air travel. Clearly, the terrorists thought otherwise. Airplanes offer mass casualties, mega global disruption and the potential for economic chaos. Al Qaeda has always hankered for these things in its attacks.

Today's plot has strong echoes of the 1995 attempt by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- the architect of 9/11 -- to blow up eleven airliners simultaneously across Asia in 1993. Mohammed is now under CIA detention, but the terrorists could well be tipping their hats to him, because with his lurid imagination and multiple disguises, Mohammed is still revered as the genuine 'romantic' hero of al Qaeda in the mold of 1960s freedom fighters.

Moreover, al Qaeda have a habit of never abandoning a good idea until it succeeds. 9/11 was itself a partial repetition of an earlier attempt to blow up the World Trade Center.

This plot clearly involves British Asians, who after the July 11 bombings in London last year have been recognized as one the most alienated Muslim groups in Europe. They are ripe for recruitment by Islamic extremists and al Qaeda. Despite the London bombings last year and riots in France, little has been done by governments to address the problems of Europe's large Muslim minorities, their chronic poverty, joblessness and lack of integration with mainstream society.

In addition, just as at least one of the bombers responsible for last year's London attacks traveled to Pakistan, some of those arrested today are likely to be British Pakistanis as well. After the defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Pakistan has become the center of global terrorism and its soil still hosts extremist leaders from al' Qaeda and the Taliban as well as from Central Asia, Chechnya, Kashmir and Indonesia. Pakistan's own extremist groups provide back up and sanctuary to the foreign terrorists.

Even though this plot must have been months in the planning, the war in Lebanon and the widespread Muslim belief that the U.S. and Britain are cooperating to allow Israel to bomb Lebanon without restraint has most likely determined the timing of today's attempted attack.

Editor's note: Ahmed Rashid is a leading scholar on international terrorism. He is the author of Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. Read more of Ahmed Rashid's writing on PostGlobal here.

Please e-mail PostGlobal if you'd like to receive an email notification when PostGlobal sends out a new question.

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Gregor:

Awww, Poor little "d". Taking his ball and going home, and he added so much.

sven:

D I knew I would not get a civilized response from you . People with a deep seeded hatred of others, like you, cannot have "dialogue", you have to have "volume". I doubt that you would call me "sweetheart" if you stood in front of me. You truly are a stellar example of Islam and its' virtues, although I am sure there are decent people amongst you.

topiaries of doubt:

christianity, Islam, judaism


dualistic, primitive belief based systems


dangerous, because they don't allow introspective discernment


priests control beliefs, priests have power issues

sey:

I would like to remind all of the following rule that applies to posting in this forum: "You may not post content that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, abusive, that violates a third party's right to privacy, that otherwise violates any applicable local, state, national or international law, or that is otherwise inappropriate.

A lot of what I see here is many of the above, including obsence, abusive, defamatory and inappropriate. It is also downright ridiculous. I am heartbroken to see that the discussion devolved so quickly into such ignorant hate.

Al Quaerda?:

right, they're that CIA trained group that wrested control of the Trans Afghanistan Pipeline from Argentina arent't they....


got the United States Elite about 12 to 13 Trillion dollars in future revenues if they can keep the region from going up in flames right?

and the 9/11 conspirators....wikipedia says that they were mostly saudi people trained at the school of the Americas right?


how did 12 to 20 MILLION _ILLEGAL_ ALIENS, that could just as easily be mohammet and his twenty brothers get into the United States w/o documentation....and hold jobs?


because our borders aren't defended, because it was a false flag attack by the United States on itsself to justify it's actions?


PNAC/Wolfowitz/Negroponte/honduras/citing the need for a closer look at the people representing you........


do the world a favor turn in a turn coat today........

tessa:

Alienation of Muslim's in Western Civilization, give me a break. Why don't
muslim's assilmilate into the societies they choose to move into, ie; Winnie the
Pooh has to be removed from a person's desk
in England because it offends a Muslim.
How insane is that? Noone has forced Muslims to move in Western Society. Muslims
don't want the same treatment they want
"special" treatment. Those that immigrate and assimilate are sickened by those that
want special treatment. GROW UP, all are religions are special to other people, your
religion is not 'more special' although you
and your brethren choose to think that.
Those that cut people's heads off in the name of ALLAH scare the crap out of everyone.

May God and Jesus have mercy on your souls

Anonymous:

haha. we already have a white version of the NAACP. its just bigger and more powerful. its called the US government.

Longfellow'a cry of defiance and not of fear':

Islam has been at war with the world since it was first devised as a militaristic dogma. The Crusades were embarked upon by Western Christian nations only 450 years after Moslems had destroyed, subjugated or forcibly converted every peoples, culture and civilisation that lay in their path.Indians suffered for 800 years under Moslem oppression, in 702 Moslems were defeated 200 miles outside Paris and in 1683 at the Gates of Vienna they were thrown back, finally, from their planned takeover of Europe. Their doctrines of koranically-approved lies and dissimulation, swearing false oaths and giving false testimony, and remaining silent (not speaking out against Moslem terrorists) is part of their creed. All Moslems are supposed to wage jihad against all non-believers until a world wide islamic state is in place and sharia law prevails. When Moslems say theirs is a peaceful religion and quote verses from their koran to prove it, they are practising koranically approved lying "to promote islam" because those 'peaceful' verses were abrogated, or nullified over 1300 years ago (islam's been around 1400 violent years) and it's all the violent, intolerant verses that they teach in their mosques world-wide. Moslems who stay silent and don't criticise actions of terror done by moslems are actually doing 'good deed' in islam because they are supporting their jihad warriors. Once you know about these moslem doctrines, a lot becomes clear. Read www.islamundressed.com or www.gatesofvienna.blogspot.com or www.jihadwatch.org They seem to know what's going on and unlike msm, they aren't scared to say so.

Anonymous:


hahah...this lawyer does. trust me, it takes maybe .001% of my brain capacity to write these posts. its no harder than swatting at flies with a fly swatter.

Anonymous:

ummm... Search.... did you read my post carefully? I said "we think we can spread democracy (probably mistakenly)" and then i go on to argue that democracy cannot take root in the middle east b/c of culture.

although i should be more precise in my terms. liberal democracy is what we were hoping to be able to spread. simply "democracy" without "liberalism" is the worst thing to have in the middle east. b/c the vast majority of countries would freely elect islamo facists. (see algeria).

the cultures and socities of the middle east simply do not buy into the values that we here in part of Western civilization believe are universial.

Nuri:

To Leonard:
There is no dichotomy, I think. Murderers are murderers; religion is just a handy rationalization. Since regular people do not know enough, or are afraid to disagree, claims of doing things in the name of religion go uncontested.

To the Post: I think you have a few candidates for "User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. "

Search:

"we pull for israel b/c they are a democracy, and we think (probably mistakenly) that they're presence can help spread democracy in the middle east."

Who spread democracy in USA or England? Democracy is not comunism which could be spread using tanks and bombs. It is learned and experinced by the people them selves.

Beside countries like Pakistan, Jordan, Iraq and Iran were under colonial rules for long time. They did not want them to be a democracy. Mossadaq in Iran and Bhutto in Pakistan was thrown out. They were democratically elected. British and USA supported the dictatros that throw them out. If you leave those countries alone, they will be democratic nations.

As far Israel teaching democracy is the same like asking wolf to gaurd chickens. Arabs living in Israel don't have the same rights that Eruopean Jews have.

D:

"D your responses of anger, are those "good Islamic virtues"? I can see that your Koran has taught you to swear and "call out others" in the most insulting fashion. One should not spar with those whom they deem unintelligent, but if you must, show restraint and calm. Calling people "retards" and swearing like you do, threatening violence, I guess you really are Muslim, sorry!"

Sweetheart, if you want a civilized response, then don't post responses laden with bigotry and garbage.

Post a stupid response, expect a rude reply in return.

Dish it out, expect it back in return.

Oh, I didn't know self-defense can be construed as being a terrorist LOL

Threatening violence? No, that's what your kind do, threatening normal Muslims who have nothing to do with terrorism, ramming your cars into our mosques, and beating up Sikhs who's only crime to be devout in their faith by wearing their turbans.

Retards such as yourself can't really distinguish a Muslim from a Punjabi Sikh anyways, so take your own advice next time.

USA:


Another win for Bush!

Phil:

I'm suprised the press is taking this story at face value considering the recent history of embarassing mistakes by the British counterterrorism forces.

Anonymous:

we pull for israel b/c they are a democracy, and we think (probably mistakenly) that they're presence can help spread democracy in the middle east. other arabs and persians pull for palestine b/c they believe that the world is not right if muslims do not control the holy land. our reasons are obviously better, and more just. although u can argue that our reasons arent practical, that they are naive.

truth is democracy will never take root in the middle east. democracy was a product of western civilization, given new life after the enlightenment (which was itself a product of western civilization). the arab and persian worlds have never been enlightened as far as i can tell. they are 1,000 years behind us and it will take at least that long for them to catch up. unless they destroy the world first. which is probably what is going to happen

Search:

Livhuwani Mammburu said: "President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair had made this world a dangerous place to live and travel because of their bad decisions. They will never stop terrorism. It is senseless,immoral and unwinable.It is a world of misery. Killing terrorists will never help because they will also keep on killing. Who is winning and who is loosing?"

You are right. I remember when Bush senior was president, it felt like the whole world was on fire. Then Clinton came to power and every where it was calm. Only thing the world had to fight about was if the oral sex was sex or not.

When this Bush goes back to texas, the world will be peacefull again (if you dont mind fighting about oral sex) :)

sven:

D your responses of anger, are those "good Islamic virtues"? I can see that your Koran has taught you to swear and "call out others" in the most insulting fashion. One should not spar with those whom they deem unintelligent, but if you must, show restraint and calm. Calling people "retards" and swearing like you do, threatening violence, I guess you really are Muslim, sorry!

D:

"haha! i have a persian gf, and u dont even wanna know what we did before i came into the office today!"

I love how people like to lie about their exploits on the Internet.

"you crack me up, kid"

The feeling is mutual, chump.

Start posting under an alias next time, pussy.

Anonymous:

actually it is working, no one had died from terrorism in the US since 9/11.

Search:

"haha! i have a persian gf, and u dont even wanna know what we did before i came into the office today! you crack me up, kid."

Would you guys even be in this blog? Isn't there a "For adults only sex blog"?

Search:

"why do muslims in far off lands get so riled over events in Palestine (and other muslim lands) and justify violence? why is the pull of religion so strong among muslims?"

Hmmm. Good question. May be because Muslims had one seat of government and every far away Muslim country was part of that extension until colonial powers artificially carved new boundaries during 19th century. For example, Palestine was part of Jordan and Iraq was together with Saudi Arabia. India, Pakistan and Afghanistan used to be one country. The geographical divide created mostly by British did not sever the link between the people.

I also wonder why Westerners and America feel so much pull for Israel? which is located in a far land.

Nad:

The timimng for the plot was to coincide with the usula high volume of US vacationers returning to the US from Britian in late August. The musings here about the Bush admin "arranging" the release of this publically to benefit them is comical. The same people will argue that Bush is stupid.

D:

SR, I agree with you on the hypocrisy of Muslims shouting bloody murder when Palestinians get killed but say nothing when Muslims are killing other Muslims.

To the poster who said Persian men can't get any, lmao....

Don't hate because Persian chicks wouldn't waste their time on inbred rednecks such as yourself hahahahaha

Anonymous:

white people actually are the richest. at least this rich guy is, and all his friends and neighbors :).

Livhuwani Mammburu:

I personally hate terrorism. I do not want to see innocent people loosing lives because of some silly mistakes by certain leaders. President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair had made this world a dangerous place to live and travel because of their bad decisions. They will never stop terrorism. It is senseless,immoral and unwinable.It is a world of misery. Killing terrorists will never help because they will also keep on killing. Who is winning and who is loosing?

SR:

D --
For the record, I posted a somewhat snotty message about Muslims taking responsibility for terrorist attacks. That said, I don't believe that the vast majority of Muslims are violent or evil. I think it's a moral and ethical error to conflate the actions of a whole group with the crimes of a tiny minority.

DJ:

"If Muslim Americans have so much wealth, as I know all of your towel headed women do nothing but shop all day long, why don't you help your poor, instead of developing ways to hurt and kill innocent people?"

We do more than our fair share to help the poor.

Hell, we even helped Katrina refugees in Houston last September.

I don't see you doing anything to help the poor, hmmm.....

Put up or shut up, bitch.

Don't hate on us because we are more wealthy than you can ever will be.

Go back to your trailer park, fucking your sisters and cousins, while masturbating to your Colt 45.

Anonymous:

why do muslims in far off lands get so riled over events in Palestine (and other muslim lands) and justify violence? why is the pull of religion so strong among muslims?

ram:

Ahmed rashid is an apologist for pakistani muslims. Muslims kill each other everyday in the name of sectarian politics. The pakistani govt. itself is primarily responsible for the terror emanating from its soil (through the ISI). It is ironic that they now turn around and claim credit for helping "unravel" the plot. If they so desired, the pakistan govt. could have helped "disrupt" the mumbai subway bombings which was hatched by the ISI. What Musharraf really wants is for the western govts. to be beholden to him for aiding the "war on terror" while they give him a free hand to indulge in terror in India, Afghanistan and now bangladesh. This is also the same govt. that spread nuclear technology to libya, north korea and iran. This situation would be so laughable if it were not so serious. The bush administration's support for pakistan is going to come at a very high price in the future as this country faces the challenge of iran, north korea and islamic fundamentalism. The fox is guarding the henhouse!

Anonymous:

and of course, they werent plotting to blow up oil feilds or oil pipelines. blowing up an airplane does not really have an affect on the supply of oil. the problem with conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists is not that they are inherently unpatriotic or believe the worst of their own leaders. the problem is substitution of the regerditation of rote patterns of analysis in the place of informed, open-minded analysis.

Search:

To Leonard Novick:

"SO THE QUESTION IS: how does one explain this dichotomy? This paradox? Where does it come from? And more importantly, what must we do, Westerners and our Muslim brothers, to ensure that the stream of peace, mercy and charity, comes to the surface."

You need to go and live in Palestine as a spouse of a Muslim and you will find out where it comes from. All you see in western media is terror and killings by Muslims. Day to day life in Palestine is for ordinary person is a hell. And for those who are driven out of their homes, living in refugees with no right of return to their home land. You don't see that in the media. You go happily about your daily routine and see world is a happy place, it is not for many. Israel's policies are the source of all the terror in the world. West is being played against the Muslim world by Israel. The recent bombing plots are not against west but against support of the Israel by the west , against killing of babies. When a person picks up shrapnel, that just killed her little girl, its reads "Made in America". Can you fathom that persons feeling?

Anonymous:

If Muslim Americans have so much wealth, as I know all of your towel headed women do nothing but shop all day long, why don't you help your poor, instead of developing ways to hurt and kill innocent people?

Diane:

In response to Leonard, we do need to be extremely frightened about the intentions and plans of those who do not care about the lives of innocent people and instead care only about executing plans that stem from a sick mindset, with the intention of deliberately doing great harm to others. We should be prayerfully thankful that these plans were thwarted. We need to understand that we are not safe in this world and need to be constantly viligant in protecting our very lives. And, we need to be supportive of the anti-terrorism efforts to avert just such a planned attack from becoming a real life tragedy for Americans again or we will relegate ourselves to become another one of the terrorist "war-torn" countries on the earth.

Haaris Ahmad:

Nice one ron

We aren't living in the stone ages, we are living in Tyson's Corner, driving Benz's, and making more money than you can imagine. I'm an American citizen too, and you can't do anything about that.

Your women love us too.

solidu17@aol.com:

The only choice we have is to keep killing terrorists and to keep a watchful eye out upon all of those who we suspect.

D:

"Perhaps force feeding pork to your extremists is one way to make them go to hell where you belong. You evil ROTTEN cave dwellers.

Don't any of you work? No, you sit around all day deciding what else to blow up and how to do it!

MORONS!"

Gotta love the anonymity of the Internet. I doubt you even have the balls to say it to our faces.

Bring it, son. I wouldn't hesitate to pound your faggot-ass on the ground if necessary. Unlike those whom you hate, I will fight like a man with my fists rather than weapons.

As I said earlier, bring it on.

FYI, Muslim Americans have more wealth and education than you, don't cry and whine about that. They worked hard to get where they're at, so stop whining like a little girl.

D:

"No D -- you need to question why your brothers are so violent. And you should find ways to soothe them. They're giving your religion a bad name. And your country. Don't look to the West to solve this problem. Islamics need to stop seeking to use violence to get what they want. "

I do, quite a bit actually. You don't know me to claim that I am doing nothing.

Many Muslims have been critical of these people, yet people like you whine and bitch constantly but when given the evidence to quell your rantings, you look the other way.

Check out www.glocaleye.org and see for yourself.

But you must be a fool to think this is exclusively a Muslim problem and not something caused by policies from Western leaders. I guarantee you there would still be democracy in the Middle East if the CIA didn't overtrhow a democratically-elected government in Iran in 1953, deposing Mohammed Mossadegh in favor of the oppressive shah of Iran, who ruled Iran with an iron fist until Khomeini came to prominence.

Oppression breeds resentment and resistance, it's a no-brainer.

This is a result of post-colonialist garbage, nothing more.

And ron, most Muslims don't live in the Stone Ages. Seriously, stop talking out of your ass and get a dose of reality. Stop trolling on blog sites such as LGF or MyPetJawa and see for yourself in person.

Anonymous:

Most religious texts are abstract and leave room for interpretation which allow them to evolve with times. Not Islam. This is the singular reason why Islam has produced a disproportionate number of extremists.

Anonymous:

Thousands of innocent MUSLIM, men, women and children should be taken hostage onto airplanes and blown up over Mecca. How would that make you feel?

Your religion is nothing but living proof of the devil's existence.

Search:

Alan says: "It seems like everything bad in this world is Israel's fault. Why is it that Moslems and their repressive governments count for much of the terrorism that has taken place for more than 30 years."

If there was no Israel, there will be no terrorism. PLO spread terror during 70s and 80s. If there was no Israel, would there be a PLO? Then PLO was side lined and came Hammas and Hezbollah. If there was no Israel, would Hammas even existed? Or Hezbollah? Al Qaeda was USA ally against Russia. Then they turned against USA because USA was supporting kings and dictators in Arab countries. Helping them to stay in power because they were easy to manipulate to let Israel continue its policies of oppression. If there was no Israel, would Al Qaeda turn against USA? NO.

Imagine, the world without Israel. There will be peace every where. The World without Israel does not mean wiping Israel off the map. (There are million of good respectable Jews who also admit oppression of Arabs by Israel). It means if there was Palestine instead of Israel which was created by the dying colonial powers.

ron:

Muslims to STOP living in the stone ages and NO OTHER group in the entire world is hijacking their "religion".

Your "Allah" is nothing but a demon!

Anonymous:

MikeB-
Get out of the fever swamp! Oil prices fall when there is less demand for oil, For instance, if there are less planes flying around due to concerns about air travel, then there will be less use of gasoline, a refined product of oil.