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| Terror Networks & Islam |
| Strategypage: Survival of the Most Dangerous |
| 2005-03-14 |
| International terrorism has become largely a matter of Arab expatriates living in Europe, or Arabs in Middle Eastern countries, making their way to Iraq, and getting killed, or disillusioned and going home, after a brief fling with danger and violence. What has been most frightening is the inability to find any of these young, European born Arabs, who have gone to Iraq and come back. It appears to be a one way trip. The few that have come back appear to be disillusioned. But it's the ones who came back quietly, and are still eager to wage a terrorism war in Europe, that is most worrisome. What appears to be happening is the same thing that occurred during the 1980s in Afghanistan. Thousands of Arab volunteers went to Pakistan, to try and help out Afghan "Holy Warriors" that were operating out of Pakistani refugee camps, and going into Afghanistan to fight Russians. Few Arabs crossed the border into Afghanistan, because the Afghans did not want to risk their lives with a bunch of amateurs. Few Arabs had any combat experience, and Arabs in general had a poor fighting reputation among Afghans. The Arab volunteers would hang out in the refugee camps, help out if they could, get their picture taken carrying an AK-47, drink a lot of coffee, tell a lot of stories, and eventually go home a hero. It was much easier to get into Afghan refugee camps in the 1980s, than Iraqi terrorist safe houses since 2003. Syria and Iran have been hospitable, although covertly, to terrorist wannabes flying in with the intention of getting across the border. While there is some government assistance from Syria and Iran, most of the recruiting and travel arrangements are handled by Baath Party and al Qaeda personnel in Syria, and Shia Islamic radicals in Iran. Syria is the main conduit of volunteers, because Iran is rather hostile to al Qaeda (which is basically anti-Shia, and responsible for recent murderous attacks against Shias.) Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are all very anti-terrorist, and make it difficult, but not impossible, for foreign tourists to get across the border into Iraq. Getting illegal visitors into Iraq has now become a big business, with smugglers and other criminal gangs charging large fees to slip the terrorist hopefuls into Iraq. It's a dangerous business, as American and Iraqi border patrols will shoot to kill if they find suspicious people in out of the way places. Apparently thousands of eager young Arab men have been arrested while headed for the border, and deported, or killed after crossing the border, and running into American and Iraqi troops. European counter-terrorism organizations believe that only a few hundred of their citizens have tried to make the trip to Iraq, and most have disappeared. The number of Middle Eastern Arabs who have tried appears to be in the thousands. More of these have returned, often with horrific stories of fighting American and Iraqi forces, and getting the worst of it. But a larger number of the Middle Eastern volunteers have not come back, and many have been confirmed dead. Trying to track down survivors of the al Qaeda effort in Iraq is a top priority by counter-terrorism efforts everywhere. Any terrorist who comes out of Iraq in one piece will not only be experienced in many terrorist techniques, but also a very tough, capable, and lucky operator. A few of these fellows could be extremely dangerous. |
| Posted by:Greenpeace |
| #4 Brian, here's a link from my peek into the archives, from a search of "Iraq killed" Some of the terrorists are foreigners. But only about ten percent of the terrorists killed are al Qaeda, the rest are pro-Saddam or pro-Sunni Arab domination. Based on information posted on al Qaeda web sites (praising individual "martyrs" who died in Iraq), some 60 percent of the al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq are from Saudi Arabia. Another ten percent are from Syria, seven percent from Kuwait, about 15 percent from many other Moslem nations, and eight percent from Iraq. Over twenty al Qaeda members are being killed a month in Iraq, and many more captured. Those captives admit that their "emir" (leader) is Abu Musab al Zarqawi, but add that Iraqi Sunni Arabs are supplying a lot of technical assistance, equipment and cash. Recent al Qaeda captives have been unhappy with the direction the "war" is taking, because of the large number of Iraqis who are getting killed, and the growing hostility, by Iraqis, against al Qaeda. Extrapolating from just this one article, if 10% of the terrorists killed are al Qaeda, and over 20 A.Q.s are killed per month, at least 200 terrorists are being killed per month, not counting the massive numbers killed off as Sunni triangle towns like Fallujah are taken care of. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-03-14 5:30:46 PM |
| #3 Brian, I am quite certain it is over 15,000 killed in Iraq alone... in fact that may have been the recent conquest of Fallujah alone. A search of the Rantburg archives should give us a better idea. Trials should be starting pretty soon for the big names... the Iraqi (Saddam era leftovers) judges have been letting the small fry off with wrist slaps, I'm afraid. Fred, any chance of setting up a tally board? After you've recovered from your latest work project, I mean. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-03-14 4:52:24 PM |
| #2 TW, I'd love to see some statistics on how many bad guyz we've killed in Iraq and I'm also eager to get the trials started for all of these Baathist thugs. I guess quantifying dead bad guys is a bit morbid. Here's why. I'm a firefighter and my crew feels we are not doing enough damage to the bad guyz. These guys are not intellectuals and have a hard time grasping political, cultural and social victories, they're out for blood. Any websites, links or info you've come across that speculates on this? any help would be appreciated. Brian |
| Posted by: Rightwing 2005-03-14 3:41:34 PM |
| #1 A few of these fellows could be extremely dangerous. Yes, indeed, but to whom? The odds are against them getting across the border into the U.S., and anyway they'd want to recuperate in the loving arms of family and friends before taking up the struggle again. That strongly suggests they'd go back to their home countries in Europe and the Middle East, to be a threat to peace and prosperity there. So now there are significantly fewer bad guyz, but the ones that remain are concentrated evil. I think we've done our bit by thinning the herd; it's up to the security forces in Europe and the Middle East to take out the remaining killers they coddled all these years. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-03-14 1:18:11 PM |