Sunday, August 13, 2006
So, What Have We Learned?
John Tirman has a list of things we have should have learned from the London airplane plot.
Jax
First, what stopped this plot was law enforcement. Law enforcement. Not a military invasion of Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, or Iraq. Old-fashioned surveillance, development of human sources, putting pieces together, and cooperation with foreign police and intelligence services.
There have been lots of people, my self included, that have been saying that the concept of "war" is not particularly useful in describing the conflict between the west and salafist terror. Soft power and law enforcement are the two main tools that will win this for us.
Second, the conspiracy—if it resembles the London bombings of last summer—will likely be home-grown, another of the growing jihad "fashion" in Europe that comprises the new street gangs of this world. It is not a religious movement, it is not fundamentalism. These are thin veneers. It is at root sheer violence undertaken by young men resentful of many things (not least the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Lebanon) and ready to kill in return. Under different cirucmstances, it could be Tamils or Red Brigades or Michigan Militiamen, and has been.
I find it odd to be on the other side of a youth political movement.
Third, if al Qaeda was involved (allegedly from Pakistan), we can thank the failure of the war in Afghanistan and the cozying up to Musharraf to destroy them.
Though it was apparently pakistan's ISI (military intelligence) that got the initial breakthrough. And Pakistan's dictator has been doing the West a major favour in fighting to defeat the Taliban/Al Qaeda in the North-West Frontier Province and in Balucstan. Pakistan has suffered the loss of 600 military personel and unknown numbers of civilians and militants. They are paying in blood for helping us.
Fourth, there was no involvement by any American-based “cells,” according the FBI Director Robert Mueller. As many of us have been saying for nearly five years, and as the 9/11 Commission Report showed, there is virtually no plausible American jihad organization at work, and never has been.
Why then is Bush pushing warrantless wiretaps?
Fifth, the plot again reveals how ill-equipped the U.S. Government has been in anticipating plausible attack scenarios and taking steps to prevent them. Liquid bombs were so hard to figure out? Al Qaeda already tried it. DHS has almost completely missed the threat, just as they are missing the vulnerability of cargo holds and God knows what else. Thomas Kean, the former GOP governor and co-chair of the 9/11 Commission, called this liquid bomb error “appalling” and wondered, on an NBC program four months ago, why no progress had been made. What are the tens of billions being spent on? This is Katrina II.
Probably what is most striking about the bush administration is its true lack of competence. These people are incapable of day to day administration.
Sixth, and most important, we must end our involvement in Iraq and sharply refocus our presence in the region. The war president’s approach is not working. It’s a diversion from the real threat. It’s a spur to bitter revenge. It’s a big feedback loop that will endanger us for years, if not decades. Our lives are now at stake because the Bush catastrophe has created thousands of new terrorists.
Soft power not hard power... of course the neocons don't think soft power exists... idiots
Link
Jax
First, what stopped this plot was law enforcement. Law enforcement. Not a military invasion of Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, or Iraq. Old-fashioned surveillance, development of human sources, putting pieces together, and cooperation with foreign police and intelligence services.
There have been lots of people, my self included, that have been saying that the concept of "war" is not particularly useful in describing the conflict between the west and salafist terror. Soft power and law enforcement are the two main tools that will win this for us.
Second, the conspiracy—if it resembles the London bombings of last summer—will likely be home-grown, another of the growing jihad "fashion" in Europe that comprises the new street gangs of this world. It is not a religious movement, it is not fundamentalism. These are thin veneers. It is at root sheer violence undertaken by young men resentful of many things (not least the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Lebanon) and ready to kill in return. Under different cirucmstances, it could be Tamils or Red Brigades or Michigan Militiamen, and has been.
I find it odd to be on the other side of a youth political movement.
Third, if al Qaeda was involved (allegedly from Pakistan), we can thank the failure of the war in Afghanistan and the cozying up to Musharraf to destroy them.
Though it was apparently pakistan's ISI (military intelligence) that got the initial breakthrough. And Pakistan's dictator has been doing the West a major favour in fighting to defeat the Taliban/Al Qaeda in the North-West Frontier Province and in Balucstan. Pakistan has suffered the loss of 600 military personel and unknown numbers of civilians and militants. They are paying in blood for helping us.
Fourth, there was no involvement by any American-based “cells,” according the FBI Director Robert Mueller. As many of us have been saying for nearly five years, and as the 9/11 Commission Report showed, there is virtually no plausible American jihad organization at work, and never has been.
Why then is Bush pushing warrantless wiretaps?
Fifth, the plot again reveals how ill-equipped the U.S. Government has been in anticipating plausible attack scenarios and taking steps to prevent them. Liquid bombs were so hard to figure out? Al Qaeda already tried it. DHS has almost completely missed the threat, just as they are missing the vulnerability of cargo holds and God knows what else. Thomas Kean, the former GOP governor and co-chair of the 9/11 Commission, called this liquid bomb error “appalling” and wondered, on an NBC program four months ago, why no progress had been made. What are the tens of billions being spent on? This is Katrina II.
Probably what is most striking about the bush administration is its true lack of competence. These people are incapable of day to day administration.
Sixth, and most important, we must end our involvement in Iraq and sharply refocus our presence in the region. The war president’s approach is not working. It’s a diversion from the real threat. It’s a spur to bitter revenge. It’s a big feedback loop that will endanger us for years, if not decades. Our lives are now at stake because the Bush catastrophe has created thousands of new terrorists.
Soft power not hard power... of course the neocons don't think soft power exists... idiots
Link
