Larry Johnson might beg to differ, but then, who cares? From CBS/AP:
British intelligence services increasingly believe that the failed car bombings in London and Glasgow bear the fingerprints of al Qaeda in Iraq, CBS News has learned.Intelligence sources tell CBS News that the people behind the attempts were directly recruited by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the present leader of the terror group’s Iraq franchise.
Police investigating the plot had arrested eight people Tuesday, including at least six suspects trained as doctors, including a man of Indian nationality arrested in Australia.
[...]
Sources tell CBS News that al-Muhajir recruited people for the plot between 2004 and 2005, while they were living in the Middle East, upon orders from then-al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Al-Muhajir was told to recruit young men who could easily move into Western countries, assimilate and lay low until the time came to attack. Britain has a fast-track visa program for medical students which makes it easier for them to enter the country.
The belief that this small cell of militants was recruited purposely by a major terror organization for their specific qualifications differentiates the group from the cell of “homegrown” attackers who were behind the bloody July 7, 2005 attack that left 52 people dead on London’s transport network.
Terrorism expert Paul Kurtz told CBS’ Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith Tuesday, “there is concern they used a trusted profession, recently arrived to the U.K., that’s a new mode of operation.”
Back in May, Bush noted in a press conference that bin Laden had directed Zarqawi to carry out attacks in the West. If CBS’s sources are correct, we may be seeing the first fruits of that plan.
In fact, Sky News in now reporting that the Brits have taken into custody two key suspects, which means we could learn more relatively quickly.
Ironically, instead of cheering the rather feckless execution of these recent car bomb attacks as a sign that al Qaeda is having a harder time dispatching experts and bringing off spectacular fireworks shows for the media handwringers, many of those who, you know, “love the troops,” are pointing to the amateurish nature of the attempts as “proof” that 1) either al Qaeda wasn’t involved, or 2) that we needn’t have been unnecessarily worried about the danger from terrorism in the first place.
Until, of course, some of these “amateur” terrorists happen to bumble their way into an attack that manages to kill an substantial number of people. At which point, terrorism will be a serious problem — though it will also be “caused” by Bush’s “elective war” and his adminstration’s “failure to connect the dots” / “protect the ports” / “concentrate his efforts on protecting the homeland”, etc, and should be combated by forging intel alliances and using every method at our disposal.
Save, say, listening in on terrorists, interrogating them, tracking their finances, keeping them sequestered from the battlefield, or refusing to grant them prayer mats and Korans.
Really. It’s a no lose situation, if you happen to be a consistent naysayer. And if you ignore what really may have been the potential physical consequences of even an “amateurish” terror attack.
At any rate, the CBS/AP story raises a number of questions, which Allah deals with here:
One obvious question is why the attacks failed so badly given the bombmaking expertise at al-Muhajir’s disposal. Another question is whether all of the suspects (of which there are, presumably, five or six given what the blockquote says about two of them probably being cleared soon) really were in the Middle East at or around the same time. According to the Independent, Mohammed Asha came to Britain in 2005; before that he was in Jordan, where Zarqawi was from and where he’d staged at least one terrorist operation before his death. If he did meet directly with al-Muhajir, the latter probably came The same Independent article places Bilal Abdulla, the unburned Glasgow jihadi from Iraq, in Britain as of 2006. One possibility is that al-Muhajir didn’t directly recruit all of the suspects but only one or two ringleaders, who were in turn dispatched to recruit other doctors. That’s how AQ leadership allegedly recruits these days  by training trainers in Pakistan who are then sent back to their home countries to lure the locals. A detail in the Guardian supports that theory:While those under arrest reveal the international nature of the linked attacks, two sources with knowledge of the investigation said there was a belief that some of the cell were homegrown. Describing current thinking about the nature of those behind the conspiracy, a counter-terrorism source said: “Some are British.†Another well-placed official said a British element “remained a possibilityâ€Â.
The same article alleges that Asha is the ringleader, which means he’s the likeliest candidate to have met with al-Muhajir personally. But when and where? According to profiles of him, he was famous among his acquaintances for being consumed with his studies. When would he have gone to Iraq? Or did al-Muhajir slip across to Jordan to meet with him there? Seems hard to believe one of Zarqawi’s top lieutenants would have risked a border crossing for something like this.
So let’s say concede, for the time being, that al Qaeda was the driving force here. How should Britain react?
Don’t answer. Instead, raise your hand if you believe this is the best step forward:
Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim†in ÂÂconnection with the ÂÂterrorism crisis.The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on ÂÂterror†is to be dropped.
The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more “consensual†tone than existed under Tony Blair.
— Which, you know, has worked so well.
Listen: I understand that Britain’s long-running multiculturalist social policy has left it in a particularly difficult position, both in terms of maintaining internal security against outside terrorist agitators and preventing the eruption of civil violence as Brits begin to come to terms with the fact that insular “communities” of Muslims have taken root inside the country — yet hold no particular allegiance to it, and in fact, consider themselves fairly autonomous mini-states.
But at some point, Labour is going to have to concede that it can no longer balance the kind of linguistic appeasement meant to keep the majority of the Muslim population happy and cooperative while it tries to weed out the cells buried inside these various communities.
Which is to say, at some point, the Brits are going to have to start referring to those who wish to continue to live and work in Britain “Brits” or “guests” — and stop worrying about offending them. They need to insist that Muslims living inside Britain adhere to British law, and begin appealing to commonalities rather than trying to accommodate “differences” to such an extent that it effectively polarizes the entire country.
In short, they need to stop apologizing — in deed and effect, if not in word — for being attacked.
The ability to identify the source of the problem — openly and unafraid — is central to being able to combat it. There are certainly valid arguments that can be made for a pattern of conciliation — especially when your country could potentially erupt into sectarian violence — but at some point, the short-term security you buy at the expense of your own strength is not worth the “blowback” that will likely result from showing a propensity to weakness, particularly against an enemy that relies on such reactions to justify the righteousness of its “cause.”
(h/t Weasel Zippers)
Comment by Dan Collins on 7/3 @ 11:38 am #
You might want to link Cernig, from my post below, but Blue Star Chronicles has a nice piece from a different angle, including an instructive link to a Newsbusters post.
Comment by Hoodlumman on 7/3 @ 11:43 am #
Good luck with that.
Comment by timb on 7/3 @ 11:45 am #
Aren’t we fighting them over there, so they won’t follow us over here?
Here’s a link to the Atlantic article Richard Clarke wrote in 2005 re: Iraq being the new Afghanistan of terrorism and Al Queda using it to terrorize the West. It’s a fine read: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200501/clarke
Comment by Dan Collins on 7/3 @ 11:48 am #
Tim–they’re sending everyone who’s got a passport to the West away from the Iraq theatre, since they’re more valuable in sleeper roles. That doesn’t mean we haven’t whacked any of them over there. If you’d have guesstimated how long till the next major hit in 2001, would it have been 6 years?
Comment by Squid on 7/3 @ 11:53 am #
What was that really heavy-handed speculative fiction piece by the Libertarian guy? The one that clubbed you with its political message so hard that you couldn’t enjoy the plot (shallow as it was)?
‘Cuz I think Clarke might have it beat. He’s no Arthur C, I’ll tell you that much.
Comment by timb on 7/3 @ 11:56 am #
I made no guess then or now, except that attacking eliminating bin Laden was the right thing to do.
Comment by JD on 7/3 @ 11:59 am #
timb – Are you one of those simpletons that thinks that the war on terror will be over once Osama is killed ?
Comment by Spiny Norman on 7/3 @ 12:01 pm #
Hey, the Mafia ceased to exist once Scarface Al Capone was thrown in prison, didn’t it?
Didn’t it?
Comment by shine on 7/3 @ 12:07 pm #
“The belief that this small cell of militants was recruited purposely by a major terror organization for their specific qualifications differentiates the group from the cell of “homegrown†attackers who were behind the bloody July 7, 2005 attack that left 52 people dead on London’s transport network.”
You’d think that one of the specific qualifications that they looked for would be ability and competence. Oh well. Better for us. Keep calm and carry on.
“If you’d have guesstimated how long tillr the next major hit in 2001, would it have been 6 years?”
Or one year? Or that one isn’t in the set we count?
Comment by Dan Collins on 7/3 @ 12:12 pm #
shine–Tim asked about their following us here, which, imperialist that I am, still doesn’t include Bali.
Comment by JD on 7/3 @ 12:13 pm #
shine – Is it your purpose to be objectively suffering from rectal/cranial inversion, or is that an accident ?
Comment by shine on 7/3 @ 12:14 pm #
Makes sense. Of course, it may also not be the same “them.”
Comment by N. O'Brain on 7/3 @ 12:14 pm #
“Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim†in ÂÂconnection with the ÂÂterrorism crisis.
The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on ÂÂterror†is to be dropped.”
Is it me or are all reactionary leftists a bunch of fucking retards?
Comment by Rob Crawford on 7/3 @ 12:33 pm #
Read this.
Comment by Dan Collins on 7/3 @ 12:33 pm #
From now on, they have to refer to it as the Thingie Against Asian Whatchamacallit.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 7/3 @ 12:34 pm #
No, it’s not just you. Just look at their current talking point that shine barfed up.
Comment by Merovign on 7/3 @ 12:49 pm #
Apart from the Quest For Political Advantage, what exactly is served by the leftist “Don’t Take Terrorism Seriously” meme?
Well, the terrorist themselves, obviously. I meant some positive goal.
I mean, we know the endpoint of the Bin Laden meme, though it looks like Pakistan may be coming to its senses and we may no longer have to invade a nuclear power to get the old fairy (provided he didn’t die years ago, that is).
Comment by Rob Crawford on 7/3 @ 12:52 pm #
Do they need any other purpose?
Comment by slackjawedyokel on 7/3 @ 12:57 pm #
I can see Gordon Brown’s point — the REAL source of this terrorism crisis is obvious — it’s DOCTORS! Just ‘cuz they all happen to be Muslim is sheer coincidence.
Damn those radical medical schools!
Comment by MarkD on 7/3 @ 1:13 pm #
No one has fingered a fringe element of the IRA? Because we all have been told it’s not the Religion of Peace.
Comment by ahem on 7/3 @ 1:17 pm #
“Aren’t we fighting them over there, so they won’t follow us over here?”
Had we acted with more decisiveness, and for a longer period of time, we would have more effectively combatted the Islamists, maybe even stopping them in their tracks. Oddly enough, putting up an energetic fight against criminals often works–ask any cop. It’s an idea we take for granted in civil law enforcement. Even you, tim. Even you.
It’s amazing our troops have managed to hold the terrorists at bay as well as they have; especially in the face of an avalanche of undermining bullshit such as that generated by naive, historically illiterate, self-loathing tools like yourself.
If we pull out of Iraq prematurely, the answer to your bogus and self-satisfied question will become crystal clear even to you, perhaps. Of course, it may be difficult discern under all that blood….
Now run along and fuck off.
Comment by ThePolishNizel on 7/3 @ 1:40 pm #
“timb – Are you one of those simpletons that thinks that the war on terror will be over once Osama is killed ?”
JD, I think you know the answer to that question.
Jeff brought up a good point with this:
“Until, of course, some of these “amateur†terrorists happen to bumble their way into an attack that manages to kill an substantial number of people. At which point, terrorism will be a serious problem  though it will also be “caused†by Bush’s “elective war†and his adminstration’s “failure to connect the dots†/ “protect the ports†/ “concentrate his efforts on protecting the homelandâ€Â, etc, and should be combated by forging intel alliances and using every method at our disposal.
Save, say, listening in on terrorists, interrogating them, tracking their finances, keeping them sequestered from the battlefield, or refusing to grant them prayer mats and Korans.”
Is it just as simple to the left as “follow existing laws” and “everyting gonna be alright, oh yeah”? Help a guy out, please?
Comment by timb on 7/3 @ 1:50 pm #
ahem, well-said as usual,
if you were a psychotic suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome. You threw in some cursing, some anecdotal b.s about cops…
Don’t you know, ahem TERRORISM IS NOT A LAW ENFORCEMENT ISSUE. Leave your pet liberal theories at home, ahem.
Comment by timb on 7/3 @ 1:58 pm #
JD, quit being a moron. I mean, I like calling people just as much as the next PolishNazi (gee, I hope I spelled that correctly), but you attribute a view to me you pre-suppose I have, because I don’t agree with your politics (along with 70% of the American people)?
After years of elevating Al Queda’s brand name with the aplomb of the best Madison Avenue marketing firm, people claiming to be Al Queda are far more dangerous than the few followers of Osama stuck in Pakistani mountains.
If, however, we could capture him, a public trial and speedy execution (Tim McVeigh style) would do wonders to expose him as the little bastard he is, instead of this grand Saladin we have made him out to be.
…We’ll pause now to allow the “historically literate” ahem to google Saladin…
At any event, in 2002 it would have made a huge difference. Now, however, not as much. But, he’s still out there and I’d sure like to grab him.
Comment by McGehee on 7/3 @ 2:02 pm #
Timbot hates competition.
Comment by B Moe on 7/3 @ 2:21 pm #
“You’d think that one of the specific qualifications that they looked for would be ability and competence.”
I keep thinking the same thing about progressive trolls.
Comment by Major John on 7/3 @ 2:33 pm #
Tim, SO I take it you believe that OBL is; 1) alive, 2) effectively directing all or most terrorist operations against the West, 3) the “law enforcement option” is the best method to combat AQ?
Comment by The Ghost of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi on 7/3 @ 2:43 pm #
Timb, we won’t be alble to send your stipend this month. Mostly because you’re not very good at this. Not to be overly critical, but Actus was better.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 7/3 @ 2:46 pm #
Who’s stopping you?
Pingback by The Thingie Against Southoriental Whatchamacallit [Dan Collins] on 7/3 @ 2:47 pm #
[...] today, Jeff posted on the linguistic improvements on the English language that new Prime Minister Gordon Brown has [...]
Comment by JD on 7/3 @ 2:49 pm #
timb – I did not pre-suppose anything. I asked a question, which you failed to answer.
Comment by Rusty on 7/3 @ 5:34 pm #
They are referred to as AlQeda because that is what they claim to be. What would you like to refer to them as?
Comment by Robin Roberts on 7/3 @ 6:06 pm #
timb, you don’t seem to even understand what “Al Queda” as a label refers to.
Comment by Percy Dovetonsils on 7/3 @ 6:36 pm #
This certainly explains some of Michael Moore’s affection for the British medical system. Two birds, one stone, one might say.
Comment by ahem on 7/3 @ 7:02 pm #
Saladin?
Both feet out of bounds. Loss of possession.
Comment by Matt, Esq. on 7/3 @ 9:47 pm #
Idiots. Al Queda is a Bush manufactured “terrorist” group, which consists primarily of Haliburton security services (note the acronym – HSS. There are no muslim terrorist doctors. Those were jews. Did you not see their pictures and recognize their greed ?
/blinks
WTF was that. I followed a link to Andy Sullivan’s page and then lost about an hour. My apologies for any offense.
Comment by Robin Roberts on 7/3 @ 9:50 pm #
I understand, Matt, you need a sip of single malt and you’ll feel better in no time.
Comment by Merovign on 7/3 @ 10:07 pm #
Wehereas Sully, to feel better, will have to go through the arduous process of finding exactly the right combination of meds, which can take months.
Comment by narciso on 7/3 @ 10:57 pm #
You want to know something funny about that Richard Clarke “If they had only listened to me, the fools” Atlantic piece. We paid for it with our
tax dollars. There was an item featured in Powerline about the the CIA’s Counter Terrorism Center shelling out money to the Atlantic council for studies on terrorism, and this was one of the results. It focused on a series of soft target bombings and attacks, ont unlike the Utah Bosnian incident, and a shooting in Minneapolis, along with IEDs against train stations, SAM strikes against Airlines and some cyber terrorism would bring us to our knees. It suggested that a preventive air strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, would trigger a coup that would topple the Saudi Royal family, and the revolutionary regime would rename it Islamiya (more likely they’d call Salafiya and Wahhabiya) This Islamiyan republic trope would surface in his delusional roman a clef “Scorpion’s Gate” which projects aworld where the Americans left Iraq, it became a satellite of Iran, which threatened to topple the surrounding emirates, which eventually led to a Wahhabi coup in Saudi Arabia, and $85 a barrel oil and
of course, naturally, 100 degree weather in the winter of 2010. By the way the Chinese are supplying the new regime with nuclear missiles.It follows that would be an American invasion to restore the Saudis, headed by a defense Secretary enthralled to them; coinciding with an Iranian plot, to 1nvade Islamiya, with the complicity of an Armenian? neocon version of Wolfowitz, a whole series of insinuations against neocons, and a disturbingly sympathethic view of the Wahhabi revolutionaries (for some one whose street cred is based on his opposition to them ) it sounds like Kos edited it himself. Needless to say, it was optioned to be a film, even before it was published.
Comment by Christine on 7/4 @ 3:59 pm #
Good stuff from Larry Johnson:
We may be witnessing the implosion of takfiri jihadists–religious fanatics who are incredibly inept. While I am not an explosives expert I am good friends with one of the world’s foremost explosives experts. Propane tanks and petrol (gas for us Americans) can produce a dandy flame and a mighty boom but these are not the tools for making a car bomb long the lines of what we see detonating on a daily basis in Iraq.
My main beef remains that much of the cable news media reacts to this nonsense like a fifty year old guy on Viagra or Cialis–they pop major wood. And the same warnings are appropriate–an erection lasting more than four hours may be harmful. Amen.
Comment by Robin Roberts on 7/4 @ 5:01 pm #
Larry Johnson continues to demonstrate what a perfect indicator of reality he is; if Johnson said that the Sun had risen in the east, I’d be worried that it had gone extinct.
Comment by Christine on 7/4 @ 5:18 pm #
if Johnson said that the Sun had risen in the east, I’d be worried that it had gone extinct.
Speaking of indicators, I can’t think of a better indicator of conservative intelligence than concern the sun might “go extinct.”
Comment by McGehee on 7/4 @ 5:54 pm #
Laides and gentlemen, I give you Christine — the irony-deficiency poster child.
Comment by Rusty on 7/4 @ 6:26 pm #
Whatever Larry Johnson is, it isn’t an expert on explosives or IEDs.
For Christine ;ex·tinct ( ) adj. No longer existing or living: an extinct species. No longer burning or active: an extinct volcano.
It must be tough having all the mental acuity of a radical muslim cleric
Comment by Merovign on 7/4 @ 11:15 pm #
Christine,
I mean this sincerely. When you write something, read it to yourself in your head first. If it sounds really, really obtuse, reconsider.
Comment by B Moe on 7/4 @ 11:32 pm #
“When you write something, read it to yourself in your head first.”
Do you think there is light enough to see in there?
Comment by Robin Roberts on 7/5 @ 12:16 am #
Christine, here’s a clue. Larry Johnson wrote a piece in the summer of 2001 about how there wasn’t any serious terrorist threats against the US.
Larry Johnson couldn’t find his rubber ducky in his own bathtub. So when a comment by Johnson fascinates you, we get a clue as to your gullibility.
As for propane fueled bombs, if built correctly they can be quite devastating. That we were lucky that the London and Glasgow bombs were not built correctly is not something we can count upon in the future. So Larry needs to grow up.
Comment by Merovign on 7/5 @ 5:40 am #
B Moe – while there is, in fact, given an appropriate nearby source, light inside an event horizon, there is some debate as to whether one could actually see in such a circumstance. Your question is thus valid.
This may explain why we keep having this problem with some people – their in-built “preview” process is hampered by physical laws we honestly don’t fully understand.
So, Christine, did you see Maximillian Schell and a big red robot in there at some point?
Pingback by Policing "hate speech": or, "yes, but it's a good censorship..." on 7/5 @ 10:41 am #
[...] to al Qaeda attacks in Britain, has decided the best way to prevent terrorism going forth is to police the speech of the actual victims as a bow to the calculated grievance mongering of those from whose ranks come [...]
Comment by timb on 7/6 @ 7:43 am #
Comment by The Ghost of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi on 7/3 @ 2:43 pm #
Timb, we won’t be alble to send your stipend this month. Mostly because you’re not very good at this. Not to be overly critical, but Actus was better.
No offense, Ghost, but just hit the Paypal tip jar for Jeff. He’s the one who supports the policies that have made Al Queda a household name in Iraq. Jeff’s the one who needs the money.
Comment by JD on 7/6 @ 7:46 am #
Because we all know that AQ was not in Iraq prior to the war.
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