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Who are the bastards?

6 comments on Who are the bastards?

Who are the bastards?
: These days, when even accidents happen we are tuned to wonder whether it was The Terrorists — which, in this country, of course, means Islamofascist terrorists. A jet blows apart over Queens… the East Coast is thrown in to a blackout… we wonder every time whether it was them again.

In Spain, they are forced today into a sick and sad guessing game: Pick your terrorists… who are the bastards?

CNN analyzes the data so far. As we all know, it was at first assumed to be the Basque ETA; then a van was found with detonators and a tape of Koranic verses:

That doesn’t make a direct link of course. But we also have a claim of responsibility from a group calling itself Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade.

This is a group that has made false claims before for other actions though, including for example, the U.S. power blackouts last summer that turned out to be caused by technical problems and not an act of terror.

What do we know is that if this was indeed ETA it would represent a dramatic shift from what we have seen from them in the past: In terms of tactics and targeting; in terms of the way it was carried out; the indiscriminate targeting of civilians with no warning and no claim of responsibility.

Terror organizations, as bizarre as this sounds, act within their own boundaries, to their own rules, and have their own justification for how they operate and who or what is an acceptable target.

Thursday’s attacks broke every one of the rules that ETA has operated by in the past. So if this was ETA, the attack marks a fundamental shift, a passing of one guard to another, according to some Spanish officials.

: And in The Age, Tony Parkinson warns that whether or not bin Laden is behind Madrid’s 3/11, he is a model for terrorists who must be hunted down and stopped:

For the Spanish, understandably, there will be anger and despair. For their fellow Europeans, it is a sickening reminder that nobody is immune. Indeed, it was British Prime Minister Tony Blair who warned only last week that “we are in mortal danger of mistaking the nature of the new world in which we live”. Now, one of his more resolute allies in the war on terror, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, leads a nation in mourning.

If any of this speculation is close to the truth, the imminent US-led “spring offensive” in the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan becomes all the more critical. The struggle to disrupt and destroy al-Qaeda now takes on added urgency. What sort of future beckons if bin Laden and his ilk serve as the model inspiring terror movements worldwide?

The fact that the Madrid bombings occurred despite a top-level alert points to the limits to security in open societies when fanatics are hell-bent on the mass murder of civilians. It is a challenge to which conventional law enforcement is struggling to respond.

Consider the grim ironies: in Germany, another alleged member of al-Qaeda’s Hamburg cell has just walked free; in Jakarta, Abu Bakar Bashir is poised for early release; in Canberra, lawyers for David Hicks demand justice.

In Madrid, they will bury the dead.

: Iraqi blogger Alaa shouts:

AKE UP, PEOPLE OF EUROPE

THIS IS THE TIME TO START THE REAL GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM. WE ARE IN THE FRONT LINE. WAKE UP PEOPLE OF THE WORLD.

: Ali, the Iraqi blogger, believes it was al Qaeda’s fault:

-The nature of the attacks leaves no doubt that whoever carried them wanted to cause as much as possible causalities among civilians, which seems to be a trade mark for AL QUEDA.

: Sam offers the sentiments of support from many of his fellow Iraqi bloggers:

Terror against innocent civilian is same anywhere and this should unite us irrespective of our ideas and religions as Muslims, Christians, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikhism, or any one else against the terror any where from any one.

For Spanish people there are friends for you in Iraq!

: Did anyone else notice yesterday that it took the BBC hours to even mention the possible al Qaeda connection? FoxNews and the AP were way ahead, from what I could see. Laziness? Agenda? They didn’t want to admit that the U.S. was in Baghdad and now they don’t want to admit that bin Laden is in Europe?

UPDATE: A commenter says that Reuters was the first to report the Islamic link. I’m hoping and assuming what I saw on the BBC was merely a dropped ball; just struck me as odd since they are usually quite quick on big news such as this.

: Sophia Sideshow says:

If al Qaeda is behind their only export–death–I wonder about any other targets, Bulgaria is an ally in this war, and certainly not as well-protected as the US (all the more courageous they).

I’m glad that the words coming out of Spain are not, “flee!” That would be so U.N.

6 responses to “Who are the bastards?”

  1. Shark Avatar
    Shark

    And a poll taken by Andres McKenna Polling and Research found that Americans overwhelmingly believe “the terrorists would prefer” Mr. Kerry to win the election.
    The poll of 800 registered voters, taken in February, showed 60 percent thought terrorists would be happier with Mr. Kerry, while just 25 percent said the terrorists would prefer Mr. Bush
    And that my friends, is why Kerry MUST lose. You want the terrorists to win, vote Kerry.

  2. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    Cool it, Jeff. Reuters was probably the first major Big Media outlet to report on the hard fact that detonators and a tape containing Arabic messages had been found close to the site of atrocity.
    Not all European journalists are like Robert Fisk, you know.

  3. onecent Avatar
    onecent

    I doubt is was ETA. Like the IRA before it, separatist groups usually don’t plan carnage on that scale. What would be the advantage in loosing sympathizers in your own ranks and arousing a full scale military response when you have nowhere to run? Separatists need to preserve some sympathy for their cause.
    Tony Blair forewarned of something big about to happen and the French were checking train tracks using some lame reason the week before.
    Even if my guess is wrong, terrorism is still terrorism. If ETA is aping Bin Laden’s methods then they should be annihilated too. The IRA trained with Palestinian terrorists; who is to say that expertise, money, and weapons don’t change hands among all of these jerks.

  4. Mumblix Grumph Avatar
    Mumblix Grumph

    I just wonder what will happen in 6 months…9-11. Was this just a warm up, a chance to show the troops that the old guys are still in the game?
    What are these “spectaular” attacks they’ve been promising?
    I don’t think this is the work of the Basque.
    I’m too tired to be coherent and prophetic…The world is starting to get heavy and burdensome, the beauty is fading.

  5. Sandy P. Avatar
    Sandy P.

    Hmmm, via Rantburg:
    According to the Czech Republic news agency, CTK, Czech police seized “hundreds of tons of imported, military-grade plastic explosives and detained two men on weapon-trafficking charges on March 10.” The police, no doubt sensitive to protocol, failed to identify the country from which the shipments originated but a Czech newspaper spilled the beans: The country is Sweden and the shipment was 328 tons of explosives. 328 tons! Might have blown up all of Madrid for all I know.
    The Czech daily, Mlada Fronta Dnes, further reported that the suspected seller was supposed to have destroyed the explosives but instead exported them

  6. weimdog Avatar
    weimdog

    MEMRI analysts don’t believe the Al Qaeda connection –
    The text of this statement includes linguistic usages and concepts that are
    incompatible with or alien to authentic Al-Qa’ida writings by Osama bin
    Laden, Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and others. The following are some examples,
    in order of appearance:
    * Following the Qur’an verses is the title “The Trains of Death Operation.”
    This is uncommon in bin Laden’s writing. Also, it is noteworthy that the
    phrase “Trains of Death” is not reiterated in the text as the name of the
    operation.
    * “Settling old accounts,” both as a linguistic form and as a concept, is
    alien to authentic Al-Qa’ida writings.
    * The use of the concept of “agents” is taken from the vocabulary of
    nationalist ideology, while bin Laden and his followers relate to their
    enemies primarily as infidels.
    * The phrase “but you did not get the message” is not one used by bin Laden,
    who does not cast his operations in the light of “messages,” rather, as acts
    in and of themselves to further the goals of Al-Qa’ida for the sake of
    Allah. Thus, it follows that:
    * The concept of conditionality, as in the statement “And if you renounce
    [fighting us], we too will stop fighting you” is not a bin Laden concept.
    * The term “The Tyrant of the Generation” was used in the previous statement
    of alleged responsibility by the Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigades, for the August
    2003 U.S. blackout – which was caused by a large-scale technical failure.
    * In authentic Al-Qa’ida writings, the September 11 attacks are not referred
    to as “events” but as “raids” (the early Islamic term ghazwah).
    * The announcement of an operation to begin at “4515 S.B.” or reference to
    an operation that is “90% completed” is alien to bin Laden’s scholarly
    Islamist style.
    Thus, this statement does not seem to be an authentic Al-Qa’ida document.(6)
    * Yigal Carmon is President of MEMRI
    http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=20079