Thursday, July 07, 2005
ISLAMIST TERROR HITS LONDON
A previously unknown al Qaida affiliate, the Secret Organization group of al-Qaeda of Jihad in Europe, perhaps as small as only a few individuals, struck civilians in a series of bombing attacks against public transportation targets including bus and subway trains. CNN is estimating dead in " the double-digits".
Given the odd change of name it is possible, as happened in Lebanon during the 1980's, an existing Islamist group in Britain with ties to terror groups like HAMAS or Palestinian Islamic Jihad created a " cut-out" group with the al Qaida " brand" to carry out this brutal and cowardly act of terror. It will also be very interesting if Scotland Yard turns up any evidence of cooperation between IRA splinter groups and Islamist extremists. IRA members have already been caught exporting their terror skills to FARC in Colombia and this bombing would only be a logical extension of that kind of inter-terror group cooperation.
We can also expect a possible reassassment of British security laws and immigration policy, the latter having previously become controversial enough to spawn the birth of a right-wing nationalist party that did modestly well in local elections.
The blogosphere is just starting to react at this hour. Curzon at Coming Anarchy points to a predictable burst of moral appeasement from the anti-globo left. Juan Cole has nothing yet though I expect that to change. Liberals Against Terrorism have two posts up, one by praktike and the other by Armchair Generalist. Winds of Change has a post up as does Wretchard at The Belmont Club who makes some good points about terrorist targeting.
More commentary later as this story develops. ¶ 5:56 AM
A previously unknown al Qaida affiliate, the Secret Organization group of al-Qaeda of Jihad in Europe, perhaps as small as only a few individuals, struck civilians in a series of bombing attacks against public transportation targets including bus and subway trains. CNN is estimating dead in " the double-digits".
Given the odd change of name it is possible, as happened in Lebanon during the 1980's, an existing Islamist group in Britain with ties to terror groups like HAMAS or Palestinian Islamic Jihad created a " cut-out" group with the al Qaida " brand" to carry out this brutal and cowardly act of terror. It will also be very interesting if Scotland Yard turns up any evidence of cooperation between IRA splinter groups and Islamist extremists. IRA members have already been caught exporting their terror skills to FARC in Colombia and this bombing would only be a logical extension of that kind of inter-terror group cooperation.
We can also expect a possible reassassment of British security laws and immigration policy, the latter having previously become controversial enough to spawn the birth of a right-wing nationalist party that did modestly well in local elections.
The blogosphere is just starting to react at this hour. Curzon at Coming Anarchy points to a predictable burst of moral appeasement from the anti-globo left. Juan Cole has nothing yet though I expect that to change. Liberals Against Terrorism have two posts up, one by praktike and the other by Armchair Generalist. Winds of Change has a post up as does Wretchard at The Belmont Club who makes some good points about terrorist targeting.
More commentary later as this story develops. ¶ 5:56 AM
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Hello Kevin,
Mushtaq is correct that al Qaida type salafists have such a selective reading of the Quran - basically Sayyid Qtub's interpretation - that their ideology is very different from mainstream teachings. You can see a similar phenomena with " Christian Identity" activists on the extreme, racist Right or Hindu fundamentalists in India.
Your friend is incorrect though about Iraq's oil being a primary motivation for the U.S. invasion. If oil was all the U.S. was interested in then we would have just invaded Mexico. Or Venezuela. Much cheaper, closer, less global hostility and better production infrastructure than Iraq.
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Mushtaq is correct that al Qaida type salafists have such a selective reading of the Quran - basically Sayyid Qtub's interpretation - that their ideology is very different from mainstream teachings. You can see a similar phenomena with " Christian Identity" activists on the extreme, racist Right or Hindu fundamentalists in India.
Your friend is incorrect though about Iraq's oil being a primary motivation for the U.S. invasion. If oil was all the U.S. was interested in then we would have just invaded Mexico. Or Venezuela. Much cheaper, closer, less global hostility and better production infrastructure than Iraq.
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