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| Home Front: WoT |
| General advocates 'bold' moves to rout terrorists |
| 2004-11-26 |
| A top United States General has called for bolder international action to stop the spread of Islamic extremism, suggesting curbs are needed to stop groups like Al Qaeda from using the Internet and other forms of media. "Why is it that people have the right to get on the Internet and spread this hatred and insanity without there being some curb, some law," said General John Abizaid, the chief of the US Central Command. "To me if we think this is some kind of freedom of speech to put on a picture of someone getting their head chopped off on the Internet and people have the right to purvey that, that's not the world I want to live in and it just encourages this kind of behaviour," he said. "They use the media in a way that's very, very clever to develop the perception of great strength, when in fact they don't have great strength." As the commander of the 220,000 US troops in Afghanistan, General Abizaid is the US military leader closest to the struggle against Al Qaeda and what he says is a broader but no less virulent Salafist movement seeking to impose by force an Islamic caliphate. Driven from Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led war against the country's Taliban rulers and under pressure in Pakistan, Al Qaeda has not mounted a major attack on the US since the September 11 attacks three years ago. But General Abizaid says it has managed to project "a virtual caliphate" through Internet websites and video and audio tapes aired by Arab media, encouraging like-minded followers to strike in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Speed of information "What makes this element so dangerous today I think is really two things that are new to the modern world," General Abizaid said. "Number one is the speed in which information can be transmitted and the way it can be transmitted without regard to borders. Number two is the potential ability of a movement like this to obtain weapons of mass destruction," he said. General Abizaid says Al Qaeda and other groups have moved no closer to obtaining weapons of mass destruction but they would surely use them if they did. "It's a very, very dangerous problem for the entire international community and that's why it is so important that people cooperate against it," he said. Although Iraq has been the scene of widespread violence attributed to Islamic extremists, General Abizaid says their ultimate objective is Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest places. "That's why you see them fighting in Saudi Arabia now," he said. "There is no doubt that Saudi Arabia is their target, but every Muslim country is their target." General Abizaid says most Muslims reject the Salafist movement and Arab governments are fighting it because they recognise the threat it poses to them. Financial contributors "The question is to what extent can they afford to be seen as the ally of the United States," he said. "It's a tough problem for them domestically but it's because we haven't really forced the dialogue at an international level. And that's an important component of it, really organising ourselves for the fight." Among the international measures General Abizaid singled out as key is treating people who contribute money to the Salafist movement no differently from people who carry out beheadings. "The truth of the matter is we have to be bold in our discussion and we need to make liable the people who are financially contributing to this organisation as the criminals they are," he said. Militarily, Al Qaeda is under pressure but it is still dangerous, he said, likening it to the Bolshevism of the 1890s or fascism in the 1920s. "They don't seek to win any military battles. As a matter of fact, in three years of battle they haven't won a single military engagement anywhere," he said. "Yet they have created the impression that they have strength well beyond their numbers, that they are capable of striking and sowing panic in western economic markets, and Western population at will." |
| Posted by:tipper |