English: Tentang Terrorisme

8/8/2019 English: Tentang Terrorisme

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Terrorism for Dummies

By John Miller

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing EditorJohn W. Milleris a former seniorintelligence officer with NATO and allied forces, with considerable experience in

Russian (Soviet) affairs and counterterrorism.

A Beginners Guide

Why We Are Vulnerable

My introduction to this series is by way of apology. I amhoping that it will be a series of relatively short articles,knit together, bound by common language. It has been

suggested that at my time of life, I should retire andleave the writing to the younger brigade. For various

reasons, I have been requested not to follow myinclinations and I provide a few reasons.

America is still the bastion of freedom that it has always

been but like any great country, it is subject to variouspressures in any area you care to name. I think ofAmerica fondly as a country, which carried the Allied wareffort against Hitler and his odious Nazi regime. I thinkof America as a country that carried the torch offreedom during that much misunderstood and

intellectually denigrated period that we call the ColdWar. The Western Allies of the US can be given some credit for their part in that great

struggle and in smaller undeclared conflicts around the globe. But over the past 20 to30 years, there has been a rather dismal trend about American politics and otheraspects of life. In particular, I think of the way many Americans have turned their backs

on science and the scientific method. Had this not been the case, Al Gore, the saintedone and leader of AGW around the globe would not have been allowed to get away withslack science, evidence that had been tampered with and statistics that had been

massaged to suit the case.

This general revolt against the scientific method has been contagious in Westernsociety. Science is not trusted because it brought nuclear weapons into existence and,

to quote John F. Kennedy, the power to destroy life on the face of the earth. Thatscience also put man on the moon, and I am not going to succumb to political

correctness and say humankind. The power of JFK's inaugural speech has stood the testof time and as a foreigner, I listen to it quite often. However, his call for a moon landingwas even stronger and more powerful because it invited man to look at the stars and

consider his destiny. I regret profoundly that domestic politics prevented the spaceprogram from continuing because by now, we should have landed on Mars. Theproportion of the US budget spent on the space program was miniscule by comparison


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with the budget for weapons. That is not to say that weapons were not required andunder Ronald Reagan, the U.S. Navy became the most powerful in the world.

Through various social movements, the underpinnings of our societies have beensteadily eroded. My generation talks of the 1950s, the quiet decade which preceded theturmoil of the Vietnam War and associated protest movements. We were at war in the

1950s and Soviet repression in East Europe was brutal, none more so than in 1956when Hungary attempted to break away from the Soviet model and I remember the

radio broadcasts of anti-Communist forces begging and praying for US intervention.Then the broadcasts ceased and we found out later that the Soviet ambassador inBudapest had played a canny game with the Hungarian leader Imre Nagy. It should

come as no surprise to learn that the Soviet ambassador was none other than YuryVladimirovich Andropov, known to some as "the Butcher of Budapest" and later head ofthe KGB and then First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. When

dying, Andropov actively contemplated a first strike against the West especially the US,such was his hatred for America and the capitalist system and a morbid obsession,proven by later events that communist states could unravel quickly. Just in passing,

remember the fall of Nicolae Ceauescu and his swift trial and execution in December

1989.

That the Communists had so many dupes and fellow travelers in the West, especiallyamong elites and intellectuals continues to surprise, but the powerful influence of KarlMarx should never be underestimated, nor its influence in academe. It made little

difference that early travelers to the Soviet Union were enchanted by deception,whether it be in the form of happy workers, Potemkin villages or first-class treatment. Awhole generation was duped as Paul Hollander has pointed out so vividly in his

book Political Pilgrims, which stands as one of the great texts of the Cold War. Eventoday, it is astonishing to find that images of communist icons abound in the West frombusts of Marx to T-shirts emblazoned with the idealized form of Che Guevara. I have

even visited the offices of politicians and found pictures of Chairman Mao adorning the

walls. Now, we have a younger generation believing that Hugo Chavez in Venezuela isbuilding something new, which is decidedly better than the Western way of life. For

those who do not value freedoms very highly and for the simpleminded, it's all tooeasy. And quite apart from those categories, Chavez is tweaking the Yankee tail andthe anti-American left laps it up in large doses. At the same time, successive US

administrations try to deal with the devil without any great success but the tin potdictator of Venezuela harbors Hezbollah and terrorist groups whose aim is to destroynot only the West, its way of life and freedoms but to wipe the state of Israel from theface of the planet.

The law has become a jackass and lawyers are like sharks looking for blood. The legal

system itself is too open to manipulation; prisons are not centers of rehabilitation but

instruments of punishment that function as colleges of higher education for hardenedcriminals and increasingly, recruiting grounds for Islamic fundamentalists.

Then we have the case of the established church. Western civilization was built onChristian principles and ideals grafted onto Roman law, amended by English common

law and in due course revised by the constitutions of various countries. However, thepursuit of life, liberty and happiness was common to all. I'm not going to simplifymatters too much but Western liberal democracy as we know it today was increasingly


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modified by the secular humanist movement that started in France withthephilosophes and The Enlightenment (Zeitalter der Aufklrung) of the 17th Century

and the bloody revolution that followed. Then the Napoleonic law became a viablemodel for many Western countries and some of its features were exported to countriesfar away - consider Tom Paine and his Francophile tendencies.

With the advance of science, in the face of resistance from the Vatican, the church wasslowly but surely undermined and with it, traditional authority. Many countries claim to

be Christian but it is superficial. Religion has become a private matter and even in Italy,the Roman Catholic Church has not been able to maintain the allegiance of thepopulation especially on matters of morals and doctrinal affairs. As for non-catholic

churches, they are slowly fading into obscurity and quite possibly irrelevance. The newGod is green and Al Gore is his prophet. To any believing Christian, we are stewards ofthe planet but not in thrall to some of the more far out doctrines, which claim we live in

the end times. As a sometime student of history, we have always lived in the endtimes and have done since the events of the New Testament, when people believed theSecond Coming was imminent. It is a very sobering experience to cruise the Internet

and see just how many millenarian and apocalyptic doctrines attract so many people. It

appears that we cannot believe any old faith and are desperately casting around foranswers and new beliefs. In short, modern Western liberal democracy in all its forms is

now lacking confidence and belief in itself and its history - it has had its feet kicked outfrom beneath. Having said that, we all know that nature abhors a vacuum and it is notsurprising that the vacuum is being filled by a force that has deep roots in history.

Keep it simple, stupid.(The so-called KISS principle of management)

To many non-Americans, the name of James Carville will not mean a great deal, despitebeing a familiar face on TV but for those who take an interest in US politics, hisinfluence has been quite remarkable. During the presidential campaign of 1992, Bill

Clinton's team made wide use of simple phrases, the most prominent being: It's theeconomy, stupid," and it was part of the brilliant strategy masterminded by JamesCarville. It is widely reported that in order to keep the campaign on the straight andnarrow, a sign hung in Bill Clinton's campaign headquarters in Little Rock with a simplemessage:

1. Change v. more of the same.2. The economy, stupid.3. Don't forget health care.

These simple statements became part of a slogan which helped to defeat George H.W.

Bush, as several writers have pointed out. The word economy has been substituted for

others for various reasons, such as the deficit, the oil spill, the math and so on,becoming as much part of the political rubric as the tendency to attach the suffix -gate

to various events since Watergate. I have my own theory about education and politics.It involves the rapid transfer of information and rather disturbingly, dumbing down ofthe population to the extent that slogans are more powerful than ideas and we are

shooting ourselves collectively in the feet because the 30 second soundbite on theevening TV news is now down to around 10 seconds and we have played ourselves intothe hands of the hucksters of philosophy, who thrive on notions of increasingly rapidchange, consumerism and entropy.


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In the face of a complex world, we value simplicity and reject the complications ofdetailed problems - we have no time to sit and think, only to Twitter or send SMSmessages. By way of digression, I became fascinated with the TV program Numbersand the mathematical genius Charles Epps. The story lines are never particularlycomplicated but the mathematical formulae conjured out of thin air by Charlie Epps

quite often rang a bell with me because I was familiar with some of the mathematicalpropositions and theories but unfortunately, I think I was in a minority, as I am today.

And so, it's time to cut to the chase.

KISS and Islamic fundamentalist terrorism(not to be mentioned in polite society or among the politically correct)

Western liberal democracy stands at a crossroads in history. Whether we like it or not

or choose to ignore it, we are at war and have been since the mid-1990s, because thatappears to be the generally agreed time when Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda declaredwar on the US and Israel and by extension, Western society. In one of the strange

quirks of life, on July 28 this year, the French government declared war on Al Qaeda in

a formal sense (AFP) after the killing of a 78-year old French national engaged aid workin Africa, where he was taken hostage in April this year. French forces struck at an al-

Qaeda camp in Mauritania, after French foreign Minister Francois Fillon announced inwhat were described as no uncertain terms that: "We are war with al-Qaeda." Frenchcounterintelligence and counterterrorist organizations have conducted operationsagainst Islamic fundamentalists but usually behind the scenes in cooperation with someof the former Francophone colonies in North Africa. M. Fillon added in part: It's auniversal threat that concerns the whole world... not just France or the West.

In a sense there was a similar declaration by Pres. Obama after the aborted terroristattack on Christmas Day 2009, conducted by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. It

represented a milestone for an administration criticized by many for using weasel words

and rubbery phrases to avoid words such as fundamentalist, Islamic and terrorist.

What follows in this series will be large self-evident and I make no apology. Practicallyevery journal and website carries complex explanations of why Islamic terrorists appearhell-bent on destroying our society. By and large, America and the West in general is

extremely rich in explanations but the problem seems to be that no one understands,wants to understand or tries to evade the issue.

This then is the first part of our dilemma: it's a simple problem that we ignore or do ourbest to rationalize away. It is endemic to Western society because our freedoms,values, norms and folkways lead us to be disinclined to stare truth in the face andadmit that we have problems which involve violent solutions.

In Part Two of this series I will examine the key question of why we are at war withfundamentalist Islam and the unintended consequences of well-meaning democraticpolicy. From there, certain cases will be examined as paradigms and some of thelessons learned by the authorities spelled out in plain text.


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Part One

Definitions

Let us commence with the basics.

1. The objective of terrorism is to terrorize.

2. An act of terrorism conducted against the duly electedand democratic government is a criminal offense subjectto full rigor of the law.

3. The subsidiary aim of terrorism is to keep a populationfrightened, fearful, and concerned about personal safety.

It is also intended to erode confidence in a governmentand its policies, especially if they are opposed to terroristdemands.

It matters little how you care to define terrorism. It hasbecome almost an industry in itself as a quick Google

search will show. The Random House dictionary defines terrorism as:

noun 1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for politicalpurposes.2. The state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.3. A terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

It is pointless to argue about the origins of terrorism because it has always been withus since man first gathered in communities and became engaged in conflict with

neighboring groups. Systematic terrorism is held to date from the French Revolution,when the Jacobins carried out systematic terror, making wide use ofMme.Guillotine, and as often happens, the inventor was one of the first victims. The FrenchRevolution pointed to the more modern problem of the effects of terrorism on apopulation encapsulated in the French phrase: Le grande peur"which usuallytranslates into English as the grand or great fear, or terror.

Historians of the time noted the chaotic effect on populations by state organizedterrorism and under various more modern forms of government, especially

communism, Nazism and military dictatorships, the population is subjugated by impliedor implicit threat, or as a refugee said to me,

I lived in fear of the knock on the door at two o'clock in the morning. Some of myneighbors had vanished at that hour, courtesy of the KGB and they were never seenagain.

Terrorism practiced by groups outside government has long been problematic.Yesterday's terrorist is today's freedom fighter and tomorrow's statesman and we haveseen examples of that around the world over the past half century. Jomo Kenyatta andNelson Mandela readily spring to mind and contemporary historians point to the factthat such people were seeking freedom and independence or throwing off the


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shackles of empire. Thus, in some cases the terrorists can be seen as having noble orlofty objectives and how many would deny Nelson Mandela a place in history as a great

and dignified leader of his people?

Yet for those of us who served during the Cold War, there is always the recollection thatthe former Soviet Union clandestinely funded armed and trained groups around the

world which claimed to be authentic liberation movements when in fact they wererevolutionaries and terrorists. Indeed, there are suggestions that the current Russian

government has links to certain terrorist organizations, a claim that will be examinedlater in the series.

One last tedious note on definition:

Acts of violence committed by groups that view themselves as victimized by some

notable historical wrong. Although these groups have no formal connection withgovernments, they usually have the financial and moral backing of sympatheticgovernments. Typically, they stage unexpected attacks on civilian targets, including

embassies and airliners, with the aim of sowing fear and confusion.Israelhas been a

frequent target of terrorism, but the United States has increasingly become its maintarget. ( See also September 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden, Hezbollah, andBasque

region.)

The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Copyright

2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Given that there is no internationally accepted definition of terrorism, I have sufficientrespect for the American Heritage Cultural Dictionary to use the definition above for thepurposes of this series. What it doesn't mention are various modes of terrorism, mostnotably asymmetrical warfare against government and terrorist attacks on the

home soil of various governments, which are two sides of the same coin.

Readers of this series will be bored interminably by constant references to pastexperience. I make no apology whatsoever for adopting this course of action. Duringmy time in intelligence, I was always aware of the injunction: Those who do not learnfrom history are doomed to repeat it. (George Santayana 1863- 1952, Spanish bornAmerican philosopher poet and humanist). And I was always struck by another quotefrom the same person: History is a pack of lies about events that never happened toldby people who weren't there.The universities are full of them!

If anything comes of this series I hope that it comes in the form of people rememberingthe past and being alert to those who would fiddle with history and airbrush facts,

especially the most inconvenient variety, out of existence. And so, without further ado

let us home in on the subject matter of terrorism.

We live in interesting and dangerous times.

Way back in June 1966, Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the slain President of the UnitedStates made a speech in Cape Town during which he said: There is a Chinese cursewhich says, 'May he live in interesting times.' Like it or not we live in interestingtimes. There appears to be a consensus that the saying originated with the Chinese

philosopher Confucius, although this has not been proven conclusively. It is used when


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a Chinese does not want to see someone happy but it is said politely in order not tosound offensive. (The original he is often transposed as you in modern times).

We live in very interesting times, and of that, there can be no doubt. Less than adecade after the end of the Cold War, America was attacked by terrorists. It nowappears fairly conclusive that the first bombing of the World Trade Center in New York

(the twin towers) on February 26, 1993, was carried out by people associated withOsama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Even Wikipedia, which is not always given to great

accuracy, concedes that a group of conspirators including Ramzi Yousef, MahmudAbouhalima,Mohammad Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and AhmadAjaj, used a fairly primitive truck bomb, described as a 1500lb urea-nitrate-hydrogen

gas enhanced device which was intended to bring down the North Tower causing it tofall on the South Tower, bringing both to the ground.

The plot was allegedly financed by Khaled Shaik Mohammed, who is one of the morecelebrated prisoners from Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) due to be tried in US courts,probably in New York in the near future. In the US, the conspirators receivedguidance from the notorious blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, who was also

involved in the killing of Rabbi Meir Kahane. Presumably some of the guidance wasspiritual but the Egyptian cleric is fortunate in so far as he is serving a life sentence ina federal penitentiary in North Carolina.

The detonation was insufficient to destroy the World Trade Center but it causedconsiderable damage, as the truck bomb was parked in underground garage and theofficial casualty list comprised six killed and 1,042 others injured, many during theevacuation of the building - a lesson that was lost on the authorities, although it wasclaimed that security was improved.

According to some reports, which remain to be authenticated, letters from Ramzi

Yousef were mailed to various New York newspapers shortly before the attack and there

were three demands which can be taken as a common leaf motif for subsequentterrorist attacks. These are simple:

1. The US government was to cease all aid to Israel.

2. Cease diplomatic relations with that country and

3. pledge to end interference in the affairs of Middle Eastern countries.

Yousef claimed to be a member of the Liberation Army, Fifth Battalion" and in hisletters, he stated that the WTC bombing was an act of terrorism but justified by Israelipractices supported by the US - in short, meeting violence with violence. Simplistic in

itself, these demand underscore ongoing demands made of the US and the Westernalliance. They illustrate that there is nothing particularly sophisticated about the

demands but realpolitikdemands that we understand that these are deeply held beliefsand are not sustainable or achievable, let alone desirable in the interests of the US andits allies.


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The al-Qadea fatwa and declaration of war on the West

It comes as something of a surprise to those whom we might describe in a variety offorms as ranging from the intelligentsia to the ignorant that Al Qaeda actually declaredwar on the West. The genesis of the war cannot be proven conclusively because thefirst attack on the World Trade Center preceded the fatwa issued by Osama bin Laden

in 1996 and again in 1998 and yet it is said to have his handiwork behind it.

In understanding the nature of the terrorist threat, it is important to recognize theposition of Osama bin Laden (or Usamah bin Ladin*) and his importance as a totemicleader and revolutionary because he was and is in many respects the key factor in thescenario of terrorism, which has gained impetus over the past two decades. It hasalways been important for revolutionary movements and indeed, popular democraticmovements to have charismatic leadership. There is nothing particularly new about thatnotion. From Pericles of Athens, Leonadis of Sparta; Julius Caesar, Emperor of Romeright through the Christian era, we have experienced the power of charismaticleadership. It has been a necessary precondition for revolutionaries across the ages andwithout delving too far into history, Vladimir Il'yich Lenin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini,

Francisco Franco, Mao Zeodong, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega and morerecently Hugo Chavez spring readily to mind and you will note some are of the extremeleft and others are their polar opposites but surprisingly, they have a great deal incommon.

However, charisma is not the sole province of revolutionaries. Where would the UShave been across the years with soldiers and political leaders such as GeorgeWashington, Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, JFK, Ronald Reagan and add your own nameswhom you believe capture the greatness of America? (Long before I knew anythingabout American presidents, I knew about Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp and George W.Custer). Each Western country has had its share of charismatic leaders: for the UKthere was a succession of monarchs with Elizabeth I being seen as framing an

independent England and Britain; Oliver Cromwell, damned by many, praised by few,created the first truly modern army and of course, no contemporary Englishman willever forget Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. France and Germany have their ownheroes and I do not propose to list them but in passing it would be unfair to omitmention of Napoleon Bonaparte, Gen. Charles de Gaulle and in Germany, a succession

of strong but not controversial chancellors since World War II, especially KonradAdenauer, who have rehabilitated Germany from the scourge of the Nazis to being aresponsible and reliable partner in Europe.

Unfortunately charisma is a word used fairly lightly and where some might ask why nomention is made of Elvis Presley and a whole host of entertainers who had enormouscultural influence, I tend to use charisma in the terms of the German sociologist Max

Weber. I do not intend to sidetrack readers especially when it comes to translatingfrom German. For the purposes of this piece, I would refer to charismatic leaders aspeople who can motivate the majority, galvanize them into action and possess what ourFrench cousins call a certain "Je ne sais quoi"- a little of what cannot be grasped orperceived, let alone categorized. As an aside, in the last presidential election campaign

the dominant personalities were Barack Obama and Sarah Palin and to a certain extent,they had charisma but it was of the variety usually attributed to professional imagemakers.


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As they say in the classics, Osama bin Laden is a horse from a different stable. In abook I was writing with an academic about 9/11, I spent a considerable amount of time

looking at bin Laden's background. It's common knowledge that he came from a richSaudi family and volunteered to fight for the mujahedin in Afghanistan, against theSoviet armed forces. Without external support, it is my considered opinion that the

Afghan mujahedin would have prevailed against the Soviets by attrition but with arms

and training from the West, usually channeled through the Pakistani ISI and itscontacts, the insurrection took on a different complexion. To use Soviet era jargon, the

balance and correlation of forces shifted decisively against the Soviet armed forces. Andit instructive to read Kremlin documents freely available, on the factions within theCPSU who were firmly in favor of intervening in Afghanistan, most notably the inner

core of the Communist Party and the KGB, who prevailed over the views of the SovietDefense Ministry and Soviet military intelligence - the GRU. And I have heard first-hand from former Soviet veterans of that conflict that even the much vaunted Spetsnaz(special forces) found the going extremely hard, like every power that has ever beeninvolved in conflict in Afghanistan. For the Soviet Union, there was never a chance ofvictory in that country and 10 years of conflict exacted an enormous toll on thebattlefield and at home.

An academic colleague of mine claims that the assistance to the Afghan mujahedin

could be likened to forging a fine sword, tempered with heat and possessing deadlycharacteristics. He maintains that the sword turned in our hands and there is somethingto commend that view. What is abundantly clear is that the Afghan mujahedin was

supported by the West militarily, with arms and training but it was in fact a jihadagainst the Soviets and as such, it drew Muslims from many countries into the conflict,especially from the Middle East.

By any judgment, the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan left a basically feudal societyvirtually untouched by the presence of Western influence and the tribal infighting, which

is characteristic of Afghanistan and other countries in the region, continued because the

Soviet legacy was an unpopular Afghan leader, whom they had chosen, MohammadNajibullah, the former head of the Afghan secret police (KHAD) allegedly elected with a

new constitution and a pacification program devised by CPSU 'experts' something of amisnomer. The Geneva Accords of 1988 which led ultimately to the Soviet withdrawalin early 1989 left Afghanistan in ruins and virtually ungovernable. This is a critical

period of history and one day, someone will join the dots. The tragedy is that US andallied interest in the country waned dramatically after the Soviets withdrew and beforethe year was out, the Berlin Wall had fallen and the writing was on other walls for theUSSR and its satellite states in Eastern Europe.

It is axiomatic that nature abhors a vacuum and it could scarcely be described as

surprising that Pakistan took advantage of the situation to secure its own borders and

at the same time ensure that an Afghan regime would be friendly towards Islamabad.The hidden hand in subsequent events, was, it would appear, the Pakistani ISI and its

formidable leader Lieut. Gen. Hamid Gul.

The tragedy of liberal Western democracy is that it has a tendency to forget key events

and even the modern attention span has decreased markedly. So, Those who do notlearn from history are doomed to repeat it.


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*There are considerable problems for Western intelligence in the transliteration ofArabic to American English. I have opted for the most common usage in spelling of

Arabic names but the US State Department has its own lexicon, which I would normallyuse but not in this type of document.


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Part Two - Against the Tide of History

There is a joke which varies from country to countryand itconcerns primarily, cities built close to the sea and whereuntreated sewage is pumped out to sea for disposal.

Needless to say, with the wrong tide, it is a case of gettingyour own back. According to legend, a respected dignitarybelieved there was no problem dumping raw sewage at seaand to prove the point went for a swim. As reportersgleefully recorded later, it was a question of going throughthe motions. Terrorism is not a frivolous matter but in

many respects, our reaction to it is very similar to the foolwho went swimming.

Terrorism in the aftermath of the Soviet withdrawalfrom Afghanistan

Despite the fact that the 1980s and 1990s saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and thedissolution of the Soviet Union, we can now look back on that period as one of missedopportunity. There was more than a little triumphalism in Western capitals at thedemise of the USSR. With the virtual collapse of the superpower rivalry and ideological

struggle that had taken up the best part of 70 years and the dangerously misnamedCold War, academic opinion held that there was only one superpower, namely America.The economies of the West were generally buoyant and in what some described as a

seminal work, the US academic Francis Fukuyama wrote of the End of History(1992)which elaborated on an essay written in late 1989.

I confess to a certain amount of skepticism about the general thesis that liberaldemocracy would be the contemporary model of government and therefore, there

would be a diminution and finally cessation of major wars in the long term. I also feltstrong disagreement because while economists were talking about increasedglobalization, lowering of tariffs, migration of labor, the Cold War had taken a toll on

the US economy, raising indebtedness, which seemed to point to a reckoning sooner orlater. Russia was convulsed firstly by near bankruptcy and a long economic recession,which appeared to militate against any thoughts that the Russian state would embraceWestern-style democracy and a free market economy. The appalling behavior of the so-called oligarchs was untenable and most certainly unsustainable and while corruptionwas rampant, the Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who had been something of a herowhen the Russian parliament was attacked by reactionary forces, went on to make afool of himself at home and abroad.

Without wishing to appear wise after the fact, I had always believed that a revivedRussia would strive for modernization and a place on the stage. The rise of the siloviki-

the men of power - led by Vladimir Putin, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the KGB led

me to believe that autocratic government would follow. He had been described by Maj.Gen. Oleg Kalugin, who had elected to stay in the West as something of a nonentity.However, it was evident to me that he was well-connected in St. Petersburg and soonbegan to consolidate his power. Few alarm bells rang in the West because Russia wascertainly not in a position to exercise power on the world stage, although with its vast


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constitution in 1956 as an Islamic republic. A mere 15 years later, a civil war in EastPakistan resulted in the creation of Bangladesh and this writer is on the record as

saying that the next potential breakaway state is Balochistan, more of which later in theseries.

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan are strategically placed in their geographic region.

Pakistan has been in continual dispute with India, its Hindu neighbor sinceindependence and there have been three major wars, one minor war and numerous

continuing armed skirmishes between the two countries. With the exception of theIndo-Pakistani war of 1971, the official reason for the conflict was Kashmir, which is stillregarded as disputed territory but not by the Indian government. All of the wars were

'won' by India, which commenced the road to becoming a nuclear power in the mid-1950s under the "Atoms for Peace" program, the principal objective of which was to usenuclear power for civil projects and through agreements with the governments

concerned, head off a nuclear arms race. Rather than get bogged down in details, Iregard the Federation of American Scientists as being a pretty reliable source ofinformation and they have extensive documentary information on the nuclear programs

of both India and Pakistan. [1]

It is axiomatic that with India becoming a nuclear power, Pakistan would have to followand while I do not wish to diverge from the central argument of this series, I will brieflymention that a central figure in Pakistan obtaining the status of the nuclear power wasDr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, who trained in West Germany, principally in critical centrifuge

technology and through his efforts, the Pakistani program was completed earlier thanmight have been anticipated. He is also believed to have dealings with North Koreaand was only recently released from house arrest. According to some sources, "AQ" is

the father of the 'Islamic bomb' and possibly had dealings with Syria and othercountries pursuing nuclear weapons. This has caused considerable angst in Westerngovernments because the thought of terrorist groups gaining access to nuclear

weapons is the fabric of nightmares.

During the Cold War, the Indian government, while ostensibly and officially neutral, wasregarded as sympathetic to the Soviet Union and a leader of the Third World. As acounterweight Pakistan was supported by both the US and China, with the latter havingan ongoing border dispute with India in the Himalayan mountains. This flared into a war

in 1962 and was fought in the Himalayas and across glaciers but it was a curiousconflict because neither side used either their navies or air forces - it was left to therespective armies. Coinciding with the Cuban missile crisis, it received little worldwide

publicity and the casualties on the PRC side are unknown but the Indian forcesexceeded 7000. [2] Occasional skirmishing is still carried out and the unresolvedstatus (at least in Indian minds) of Tibet and the Uighur homeland has the potential to

complicate relations between the two most populous nations on earth.

Pakistan as a major player in terrorism and the war on terrorism.

Sometimes it is forgotten in the West that Pakistan is the sixth most populous nation onearth, and ranks behind Indonesia as having the second largest Muslim population,

comprising mainly the Shia branch of that religion. It is my view that to make sense ofthe international terrorist problem today, we must examine forensically anddispassionately as possible, the events in Afghanistan and the relationship between that


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Pakistani nuclear weapon in 1998. Notable also was his closeness to the Army andrelationship with Gen. Gul.

Pakistan as an Islamic state.

It is a fact of history and not recognized particularly well in the West that in 1998

Nawaz Sharif proposed a law to create an Islamic order in Pakistan, where the legalsystem to be based on the Koran. He told his fellow countrymen that the proposed bill

was a charter of duties and not power. According to Pakistani news sources, had hebeen successful, the existing Civil Code would have been replaced by the sharia andSharif would have been declared Amir-ul-Momineen which is translated as Commanderof the Faithful, a term that is pregnant with meanings in both the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds. [3] The proposed law found its way through the lower house ofparliament, the National Assembly, where it needed a two-thirds majority to beaccepted. In the event, martial law was declared in the Northwest on the borders withAfghanistan and the amendment failed in the Senate. Before Sharif could move further,his government was dismissed by the military under Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Despite the fact that this legislation was defeated conclusively by circumstances ratherthan legislation, Pakistan is and remains an Islamic state and sharia law is found in

many provinces, especially the more unruly regions where the central government'scontrol can be considered loose at best.

A dangerous legacy - Note well!

In exile, Sharif was considered to be an influential opponent of General Musharraf andhis attitude to sharia law remained strong. Indeed, it says a great deal for the Pakistanipress and its freedom at the time that reports were carried of meetings between NawazSharif and Osama bin Laden, revealed by a discontented ISI officer who had been

dismissed for being outspoken. This officer claimed to have been involved with the

other key actors in the establishment of the IJI and had arranged meetings with binLaden in Saudi Arabia in 1988. Apparently bin Laden was not terribly convinced by

Sharif's commitment to jihad and consequently gave the latter a smaller amount offinance that he had requested in order to fight the government of Benazir Bhutto.However, Sharif met leading members of the Saudi royal family and they arranged for

his release after the military coup in 1999 and gave him exile in Saudi Arabia.

In a nutshell, Pakistan came perilously close to becoming a state where sharialaw would be implemented, largely because of the efforts of Nawaz Sharif andbehind him, Lieut. Gen.Guland others of a like mind. Some idea of the full impact ofsharia law can be gained by reference to the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan until US-led intervention, to be covered in the next article. The most important conclusion to this

part of the series is that America's allegedly staunch ally during the Cold War nearlybecame a fundamentalist state in the 1990s. It is also important to emphasize that the

militant form of Islam had gained considerable ground in that country. In manyrespects, while attention is centered on Afghanistan, the West has every reason to besuspicious of developments within Pakistan, irrespective of whether they are

government policy. [4]

While the attention of many in the Western intelligence communities is focused on AlQaeda because of 9/11, an equally lethal group exists within Pakistan and within the


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Pakistani diaspora abroad in the form of Lashkar-e-Taiba (L-e-T/LeT) - the Army of thePure. To cite the testimony of an American expert on the subject, LeT was founded in

1987 by Hafiz Saeed, Abdullah Azzam, and Zafar Iqbal as the armed wing of the MarkazDawat-ul Irshad (MDI), the Center for Proselytization and Preaching, which sought torealize a universal Islamic state through tableegh (preaching) and jihad (armed

struggle). [5]

In his testimony, and that of a year earlier Mr.Tellis [6] considered LeT to rank second

after Al Qaeda as the most important terrorist group operating from South Asia. Hepoints to similar objectives between the two groups but states unequivocally that:...unlike Al Qaeda, which is truly a stateless terrorist organization, LeT remains

primarily Pakistani in its composition, uses Pakistani territory as its primary base ofoperation and continues to be supported extensively by the Pakistani state, especiallythe Pakistani army and the ISI. (2010 page 2) As we have seen, prominent military

and political figures have fully supported the implementation of sharia law in Pakistanand LeT has an ideology based on establishing a universal caliphate through jihad athome and abroad.

While there is little doubt that LeT was originally established as a quasi-military body,with its headquarters in the Pakistani administered area of Kashmir and a history offomenting trouble in that area including terrorism against India (and in all probabilitybeing behind the Mumbai hotel raid of November 2008). I tend to disagree with Mr.Tellis on the danger it represents to the West. Often overlooked is the number of

Pakistani communities abroad to the extent that the Pakistani diaspora is sizeable,extensive and the majority are in a relative sense (compared to rural peasantry) well-educated. In due course, the problematic relationship between the US and Pakistan will

be examined in the context of the current situation. Suffice to say, one of the deadliestwarnings was produced byThe Economistmagazine (UK) in an article entitled: A singlespace; Islam in Britain and South Asia (May 2, 2009) which dwelt on the Pakistani

diaspora and the fact that theologically as well as socially, Muslims in Britain and their

countries of origin form a seamless whole. [7] The Economist also produced a well-written article in its issue of December 11, 2008 entitled Rogue Elephants which was

part of a small series covering militant attacks inside Pakistan.

There are countless other papers written, which touch on the subject. I wrote a series

of articles following the Mumbai attack and then the ensuing and markedly similarattacks on the Police academy in Lahore and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket teamin the same city. The conclusion of LeT involvement remains basically unchanged and

unchallenged. And the international reach of LeT has been amply demonstrated in thepast few years.

While the US government regards Pakistan as an ally in the conflict against the Taliban

in Afghanistan, the situation can be compared to clasping an asp to the bosom in manyrespects. As a direct consequence of his anti-American, anti-Western and pro-binLaden views Lieut. Gen.Hamid Gul has been placed on the US governments watch list ofglobal terrorists. According to the New Testament, a person is known by his deeds towhich we might add his words. In a revealing interview conducted in August 2003, the

general stated: God will destroy the US in Iraq and Afghanistan and wherever it will tryto go from there. [8] From assisting the West in the campaign against the Soviets inAfghanistan, the general has turned to a belligerent anti-American, anti-Western stance


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and is known to be a supporter of Osama bin Laden. He has also been extremely activein promulgating the proposition that Mossad and the CIA were behind the 9/11 attack

on the World Trade Center.

That will be dealt with in a later article but Part Three will examine the terrorist lead-into that catastrophic event and once again, demonstrate that the West has a proclivity

to forget evil actions rather easily.

[1] FAS (Federation of American Scientists): Indian Nuclear weapons andPakistanNuclear Weapons.

[2] The US, despite being preoccupied with the Cuban problem provided material aidand support to India. Two useful references for the interested are "The China-Indiaborder war (1962)"by Lt. Cdr, J. B. Calvin

U.S.M.C.http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1984/CJB.htmandMaxwell, Neville, India's China War(London, 1970)

[3] Irfan Khan: Balance Sheet of a Dictatorship, Dawn, August 23, 2008 and Nawaz

Sharif met Osama three times: former ISI official, Daily Times, Thursday June 23,2005

[4] It is a sobering thought that Foreign Policyin conjunction with The Fund forPeace lists Pakistan at No.10 on its Failed States Index. I see no reason to dispute theranking given the dimensions used to rank countries.

[5] Testimony of Ashley J. Tellis, Senior Associate of the Carnegie Endowment forInternational Peace to the US House of Representatives,Committee on Foreign Affairs,

Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia - March 11, 2010. (pdf)

[6] Prepared Testimony by Ashley J. Tellis, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for

International Peace to the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security andGovernmental Affairs, Lessons from the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks, Part II, January 28,2009.

[7] See also "The diaspora effect"by Shiraz Maher Prospect magazine, issue 142,January 2008 and Born in the UK: Young Muslims in Britainwritten by Hugh Barnesand published in 2006 by the Foreign Policy Centre (UK). Also highly informative onIslamic radicalism and terrorism is: Britain hub of terror by Gordon Thomas,published by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin on September 21, 2006. http://g2.wnd.

[8] God will destroy America says Hamid Gul Daily Times (Pakistan) August 30, 2003and a currently unavailable interview on the website run by one of the usual suspects in

the anti-American media, Robert Fisk. Robert-Fisk.com September 14, 2001.


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Part Three

Authors note. To be factually correct, Al Qaeda should be spelled al-Qaeda and the same principle holds for any number of names

preceded by the suffix al. Rather than throw the baby out with thebath water as some in the US press have done, referring to Al Qaedaas merely Qaeda, I have elected to use the most common form. Nodoubt, pedants will point to a myriad of spellings and variationsespecially the differences between the British and American press. Itake the view that a rattlesnake is still a rattlesnake, irrespective ofwhether you want to call it something else.

How soon we forget

Somehow during the modern technological revolution, either bydesign or neglect we appear to lose chunks of our collective memory. Quite apart from TV, variousportable devices have become part of everyday life. Do readers remember TheWalkman, an

original by Sony because now we have MP3 players and iPods that make the old device redundant,either discarded or shoved away down the back of drawer. I had three and I know that two nowlive among my socks and the third is gathering dust somewhere else. The 30-second soundbite sobeloved of TV stations is down to about 10 seconds and with it, our attention span. So as we arejust under a month away from the most dreadful anniversary, I thought I'd briefly quote a fewlines from the song usually performed by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Soon we all forget, how soon we forgetSoon we forget, ohWell, take a look around and you will seeSoon we all forget, oh, oh

So many people have got it worse than meOh, can't you see how soon we all forget?

Credits: Buchanan, Pat (Songwriter); Johnson, Robert White (Songwriter); Van Zant, Donnie(Songwriter); Van Zant, Johnny (Songwriter); BUG MUSIC (Publisher); L & K MUSIC (Publisher);PLAY YOUR HORN MUSIC (Publisher); RYKOMUSIC (Publisher)

At the end of Part Two of this series, I mentioned how close Pakistan came to being governed bySharia law. However, I omitted an extremely important rider; namely that I was talking about theareas under control of the central government of Pakistan, if it can be called that, and certainlynot the tribal areas especially the North West Frontier Provinces. These are dangerous areaswhere the Taliban and Al Qaeda find refuge in wild country and the locals are caught up in thestruggle. As good Muslims, they adhere to what they are told by powerful figures among the forces

ranged against the US and its allies. Indeed, a US writer has noted that despite the American andallied intervention to defeat the Taliban in 2002, whole regions of Afghanistan and provinces ofPakistan operate under what the United States Commission on International Religious Freedomdescribed in 2003 as Taliban-Lite.[1]

It is not particularly easy to tease out the constituent elements of the forces that fight against theUS in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan. There have been instances of internecine strife betweenSunni and Shia but they are united by two important principles. The first is obviously to defeat theUS and secure a withdrawal of troops, while the second is predicated on the establishment of a


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worldwide caliphate. A subsidiary issue is terrorism in the West, which we will come to fairly soonbut as I have been trying to emphasize, we must look at history.

The objectives of the Taliban today are exactly the same as those that were introduced when theyfirst appeared on the scene in the aftermath of the Soviet withdrawal. Afghanistan had been leftin tatters, with 1.5 million dead and more Afghans living outside the country in exile than

suffering privation at home. Some estimates run to 2 million people living in refugee camps in Iranand other countries. The more fortunate migrated to the west. Under the circumstances, withwarlords battling for supremacy, the emergence of the Taliban between 1993-96 appeared tosome to be a purifying and uniting force. As mentioned previously, there is nothing mysteriousabout the word Taliban - it literally means the students and was comprised of students of variousdescription. They were usually part-time or full-time students at madrassas - the Islamic schoolswhich we in the West ignore to our peril. But like any mass movement, the Taliban neededdisciplined leadership, framed in such a way as to instil order and it does no harm whatsoever tohave an air of mystery or near miraculous ability in a leader.

As far as can be ascertained, the Afghan Taliban foundMohammed Omar (pictured), an itinerant teacher/preacher whoapparently owed no allegiance to any tribe or group. He had

fought against the Soviets with distinction and being woundedfour times and had lost an eye in the process. He was,according to one writer, possessed of a reputation as a piousascetic. [2] His reputation grew as he dispensed summaryjustice to those who were perceived to have committedcriminal offenses, by means of hanging them from the barrel ofa tank - a favorite means. He was particularly harsh on rapistsand the Taliban attracted support as news of a charismaticleader spread. Furthermore, he appeared to represent thePashtuns, who had been decimated by the Soviets andmarginalized by warlords.

Kandahar fell to the Taliban in 1994 and proceeded to expandits control through occupation of Herat and by September 1996,Kabul, the capital city was in the hands of the Taliban, who proceeded to eliminate many of thewarlords; provide their version of law and order and impose strict Islamic sharia law on thecountry, declaring it to be the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan but there was no designated Emir.There is sufficient anecdotal as well as official reports to suggest that in the first few months, theinternational community welcomed the reestablishment of order in Afghanistan. In a way, only thehardest heart could not feel sympathy for the people of Afghanistan. After 17 years of hard andbitter war, it had the highest maternal, infant and child mortality rates in Asia and 10 millionlandmines dotted the landscape.

As mentioned in the previous article, the Pakistani ISI provided support for the Taliban, in termsof training, matriel and quasi-legitimacy. For many outside analysts, the Taliban was seen as a

cat's paw of Lieut. Gen. Hamid Gul. From sometime in 1994, Pakistan under Benazir Bhuttorecognized the Taliban as the protectors of convoys through Afghanistan and by 1997, thelegitimate rulers of country and by year's end in 2000, 95% of the area was estimated to be undertheir control, which given the geography, topography, loose borders and wild country it couldcertainly be considered total.

The Clinton administration initially supported the Taliban as a counterweight to Iran and in somerespects it can be seen as a continuation of the policies of President Reagan. There were soundreasons for trying to deal with the new government because the US had interests in the area


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including potential oil pipelines but disillusionment grew quickly. In September 1996, a StateDepartment spokesman expressed the hope that the Taliban would: move quickly to restoreorder and security and to former representative interim government that can begin the process ofreconciliation nationwide. That spokesman described the summary execution of formerPresident Najibullah as regrettable but moves to establish diplomatic relations with the Talibangovernment were fiercely opposed by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who was certainly not

impressed by the way the Taliban treated women and introduced regressive and repressivepolicies.

This brings me to a quick description of what those policies were; what they meant in everydaylife and why the West should be united against the forces that would seek to implement Sharialaw and associated practices in a worldwide Caliphate. And let me be clear at this point. A seniorTaliban functionary stated in an interview with the German media Weltwoche that the Talibanand Al Qaeda were as one and although the interview dates from 2007, there is little doubt thatthe general line of reasoning had been operating principles for the Taliban and its allies from the1990s. The interviewee was Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, brother of a slain former Taliban militaryleader. He was specifically asked about the relationship between Al Qaeda and the Taliban andhis response was that they had warm and friendly relations and shared aims. He emphasized thatthe Taliban was separate from Al Qaeda but more importantly he stated: Jihad is a duty forevery upstanding Muslim. Jihad must not be restricted to Afghanistan or Iraq. Ours is a globalstruggle and I have promised Allah that I will spread it across the world until the end of mydays. [3]

The iron grip of the Taliban

The fears of Madeleine Albright were all too understandable and undeniably correct from awestern standpoint and proven by the Taliban in action. Apart from acts of vandalism on a grandscale, which included the demolition of historic monuments, such as the Buddha statues ofBamiyan and was intended to purify the country, by then the West shouldhave realized what theTaliban all about. It has been stated that during their first period of rule, their objective was toestablish a puritanical caliphate that neither recognized nor tolerated forms of Islam divergent

from their own. The Taliban's version of Sharia law has been described as a close kin of SaudiArabian Wahhabism but far more perversion than interpretation. It is said to be historicallyinaccurate, contradictory, self-serving and fundamentally deviant from prevailing interpretationsof Islamic law and practice.[4] For those who seek to excuse excess, this is what I would call a copout, especially given the close relations between the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The Taliban, in common with most Islamic states condemns democracy or any secular or pluralisticpolitical process as blasphemy and an offense against Islam. In short, any dialogue with them isone-sided. However, should there be any lingering doubts about the brutality of the Taliban, thereare adequate examples of their rule. It has been said by many that Islam is an unreconstructedreligion which has remained basically the same since the sixth century. Unlike Christianity therehas been no reformation and very little moderation. Among the most savage repression conductedby the Taliban, their war on women stands out. The Taliban government produced a long list of

the and decrees which were particularly misogynistic.

Schools for girls were closed; women were forbidden to leave their homes without verifiablepermission; wearing non-Islamic dress was forbidden and with that went an absolute ban onmakeup, fashionable shoes, nail polish and dress accessories. Music, dancing, cinemas and anyform of nonreligious broadcasting was forbidden: the penalty inevitably was death - after beingbeaten or flogged, the guilty was shot or beheaded. Beheading is almost a public spectacle inSaudi Arabia despite the protests of Western governments but with the Taliban, it was more than


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a spectacle being intended to be a demonstration of the fate of those who deviated from the truepath.[5]

From their own mouths - edicts of the Taliban. (WYSIWYG)

A decree announced by the General Presidency of Amir Bil Maruf and Nai As Munkar (the notorious

Taliban religious police) in late 1996.

On Women and Families

Women you should not step outside your residence. If you go outside the house you should not belike women who used to go with fashionable clothes wearing much cosmetics and appearing infront of every men before the coming of Islam.

Islam as a rescuing religion has determined specific dignity for women, Islam has valuableinstructions for women. Women should not create such opportunity to attract the attention ofuseless people who will not look at them with a good eye. Women have the responsibility as ateacher or coordinator for her family. Husband, brother, father have the responsibility forproviding the family with the necessary life requirements (food, clothes etc). In case women are

required to go outside the residence for the purposes of education, social needs or social servicesthey should cover themselves in accordance with Islamic Sharia regulation. If women are goingoutside with fashionable, ornamental, tight and charming clothes to show themselves, they will becursed by the Islamic Sharia and should never expect to go to heaven.

All family elders and every Muslim have responsibility in this respect. We request all family eldersto keep tight control over their families and avoid these social problems. Otherwise these womenwill be threatened, investigated and severely punished as well as the family elders by the forcesof the Religious Police (Munkrat).

The Religious Police have the responsibility and duty to struggle against these social problems andwill continue their effort until evil is finished.

Hospital Rules and Prohibitions

1. Rules of work for the State Hospitals and private clinics based on Islamic Sharia principles.Ministry of Health, on behalf of Amir ul Momineet Mohammed Omar.Kabul, November 1996.

2. Female patients should go to female physicians. In case a male physician is needed, thefemale patient should be accompanied by her close relative.

3. During examination, the female patients and male physicians both will be dressed withIslami hijab.

4. Male physicians should not touch or see the other parts of female patients except for theaffected part.

5. Waiting room for female patients should be safely covered.6. The person who regulates turn for female patients should be a woman.7. During the night duty, in what rooms which female patients are hospitalized, the male doctor

without the call of the patient is not allowed to enter the room.

8. Sitting and speaking between male and female doctors are not allowed. If there be need fordiscussion, it should be done with hijab.


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9. Female doctors should wear simple clothes, they are not allowed stylish clothes or use ofcosmetics or make-up.

10.Female doctors and nurses are not allowed to enter the rooms where male patients arehospitalized.

11.Hospital staff should pray in mosques on time.12.The Religious Police are allowed to go for control at any time and nobody can prevent them.13.Anybody who violates the order will be punished as per Islamic regulations.

General Rules and Prohibitions

General Presidency of Amr Bil Maruf. Kabul, December 1996.

1. To prevent sedition and female uncovers (Be Hejabi). No drivers allowed to pick up womenwho are using Iranian burqa. In case of violation the driver will be imprisoned. If such kind of

female are observed in the street their house will be found and their husband punished. If the

women use stimulating and attractive cloth and there is no accompany of close male relative

with them, the drivers should not pick them up.2. To prevent music. To be broadcasted by the public information resources. In shops, hotels,

vehicles and rickshaws cassettes and music are prohibited. This matter should be monitored

within five days. If any music cassette found in a shop, the shopkeeper should be imprisoned

and the shop locked. If five people guarantee the shop should be opened the criminal

released later. If cassette found in the vehicle, the vehicle and the driver will be imprisoned.

If five people guarantee the vehicle will be released and the criminal released later.

3. To prevent beard shaving and its cutting. After one and a half months, if anyone is observedwho has shaved and/or cut his beard, they should be arrested and imprisoned until their

beard gets bushy.

4. To prevent keeping pigeons and playing with birds. Within ten days this habit/hobby shouldstop. After ten days this should be monitored and the pigeons and any other playing birds

should be killed.

5. To prevent kite-flying. The kite shops in the city should be abolished.6. To prevent idolatry. In vehicles, shops, hotels, room and any other places, pictures and

portraits should be abolished. The monitors should tear up all pictures in the above places.

7. To prevent gambling. In collaboration with the security police the main centers should befound and the gamblers imprisoned for one month.

8. To eradicate the use of narcotics. Addicts should be imprisoned and investigation made tofind the supplier and the shop. The shop should be locked and the owner and user should be

imprisoned and punished.9. To prevent the British and American hairstyle. People with long hair should be arrested and

taken to the Religious Police department to shave their hair. The criminal has to pay the

barber.

10.To prevent interest on loans, charge on changing small denomination notes and charge onmoney orders. All money exchangers should be informed that the above three types of

exchanging the money should be prohibited. In case of violation criminals will be imprisoned

for a long time.


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11.To prevent washing cloth by young ladies along the water streams in the city. Violator ladiesshould be picked up with respectful Islamic manner, taken to their houses and their husbands

severely punished.

12.To prevent music and dances in wedding parties. In the case of violation the head of thefamily will be arrested and punished.

13.To prevent the playing of music drum. The prohibition of this should be announced. Ifanybody does this then the religious elders can decide about it.

14.To prevent sewing ladies cloth and taking female body measures by tailor. If women orfashion magazines are seen in the shop the tailor should be imprisoned.

15.To prevent sorcery. All the related books should be burnt and the magician should beimprisoned until his repentance.

16.To prevent not praying and order gathering pray at the bazaar. Prayer should be done ontheir due times in all districts. Transportation should be strictly prohibited and all people are

obliged to go to the mosque. If young people are seen in the shops they will be immediately

imprisoned.

A lesson for the West

The draconian nature of the regulations given above is but print. In practice, they transcendedanything that we in the West and even those who lived under communist governments wouldregard as civilized. Films smuggled out of Afghanistan during the early rule of the Taliban is trulyhorrific. In my various discussions with people who have lived in Iran under the Khomeni regimestate that Afghanistan was truly horrific, even by day-to-day standards in Tehran. This is the typeof barbarity, misogyny and total control that Islamic fundamentalists want to see imposed on aworldwide basis. And yet, we have far too many people who make excuses for the excesses of theTaliban. Ask yourselves this: is this the way you want to live or see your children raised?

It is a fact of history that Osama bin Laden moved to

Afghanistan (Kandahar) in 1994 as a guest of Mullah Omar(pictured), who was referred to by some asAmir ul-Momineen,or commander of the faithful and if that does not ring a bell inthe mind of the reader, I respectfully suggest you look at theprevious issue and Pakistan. It has been reported that Osamabin Laden declared war on the West in 1996, while there havealways been anecdotal accounts that his hostility to the US inparticular dated from the end of the campaign against theSoviets in Afghanistan.

Having disposed of the would-be imperial power (the USSR) itwould appear to be quite logical that the attentions of Islamic

fundamentalists would turn to those whom they regard as the Great Satan and the Lesser Satan -the United States and Israel respectively. The reasons appear fairly clear: the United States, morethan any Western country, represents Western liberal democracy, the free market and individualrights and freedoms which are anathema to fundamentalist Muslims. The hatred directed againstIsrael is historic and pan-Arabic.

Although Israel has to take sometimes extraordinary actions to safeguard its security, the greatestproblem is that it is democratic and seen as an alien outpost in the Middle East. Furthermore, if itcan be dignified as such, there are claims that Israel is occupied Arab territory and therefore by


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definition must be wiped from the face of the earth. Certainly the current president of Iranbelieves this to be the case and claims religious legitimacy for his views.

From the mid-1990s, militant Islam was on the march against the West and a campaign ofterrorism commenced. According to some accounts, Osama bin Laden sponsored a group calledThe World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders (WIFJAJC), later reinstituted as Al

Qaeda. Afghanistan was the strategic base from which operations were directed. (Just a gentlereminder; Al Qaeda translates as the base - nothing more).

I noted in an earlier article that the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center had all the hallmarksof the handiwork of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden yet it took place before bin Laden officiallydeclared war on the West. It has also been established that the US was very lucky in that thedamage could have been much more considerable and endangered the WTC, killing more than thesix dead and nearly 1000 injured. Quite recently, it was suggested that the Oklahoma bombingwas connected to Al Qaeda through the person of Ramzi Yousef[6], and there certainly arequestions that need to be answered. The Oklahoma City bombing was until 9/11, the single mostdevastating terrorist attack on American soil, claiming the lives of 168 people including 19children under the age of six. In addition, nearly 700 people were injured. Reports of this incidentand the official documentation can be found easily on the Internet and I do not propose to dwell

further on the matter because the possible Al Qaeda link remains in the proverbial "too hard"basket. The only reason for mentioning it in this context is that it spawned a massive growth inconspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists, which adds to the general confusion surroundinghistorical events and to some is seen as grounds for condemning the US government and its ownagencies for terrorist activity on home soil.

In 1998, on August 7 there was a series ofsimultaneous truck bomb explosions directedagainst US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobiwith a combined death toll of 238.[7] The militaryretaliation by the Clinton Administration wasdirected against targets in Sudan and Afghanistan

which were asserted to be associated with theWIFJAJC but the Tomahawk cruise missiles failedto kill any leaders of that group or those whoclaimed responsibility, the Egyptian Jihad.According to an article published in the NewStatesman (UK) on March 20, 2000, the militaryaction was to divert US domestic attention awayfrom the activities of Bill Clinton and a White

House intern.[8]Be that as it may: in Sudan, the destroyed chemical plant produced antimalarialdrugs and its destruction provided enemies of the US with ample propaganda. It also served toobscure the deadly attacks on the US embassies.

In 2000, US authorities and allies managed to thwart a series of

attacks known collectively as the 2000 millennium plots. The handof Al Qaeda is deemed to have been seen in these incidents but theone that attracted my attention most was a bomb-ladenmotorboat, crewed by militants in the port of Aden, Yemen, onJanuary 3, 2000. The target was an Arleigh Burke-class guidedmissile destroyer, USS The Sullivans, named after World War IIheroes. The attack boat sank before it could reach its target,apparently because it was overloaded with explosives. Then, on


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October 12, 2000 came the attack on the USS Cole, once more in the port of Aden.

This was a suicide attack, again conducted by motorboat and responsibility was claimed by AlQaeda. It claimed the lives of 17 US sailors, while a further 39 were injured in what has beendescribed as one of the most deadly attacks on the US Navy during peacetime. The attack tookplace at 11:18 local time, while the USS Cole was refueling. A small craft approached the port

side and detonated what was estimated to be over 1000 pounds of explosives and it hit the galleywhen many of the crew were lining up for lunch.

Notwithstanding the official line of the U.S. Navy and without casting aspersions on any expertinvolved, I have been told privately that the USS Cole was extremely fortunate and the damagefar greater than the official sources revealed.

In many respects, this is the type of asymmetricalwarfare commenced and subsequently refined byAl Qaeda. It prompted a propaganda broadcast bybin Laden which was seen as a recruitment pitch.The attack was apparently planned at an Al

Qaeda summit held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in

2000. [9] Among the notables who attended wereKahalid al-Midar then traveled to the US where hemade the acquaintance of the now notoriousAnwar al-Awaki, later identified as being the9/11 imam who has been linked to more recent

terrorist atrocities including the shooting at Fort Hood and the underwear bomber of 2009 andnow has the distinction of being targeted by the US as a terrorist threat. In short, to beterminated if capture is not possible.

I have only briefly referred to Israel in this series but there can be no doubt that they are as mucha target, perhaps even more so, than other Western democracies. I have a profound professionalrespect for Israeli intelligence. However, what is more impressive is part of their national psyche,

which can be summed up in two words: Never again. This is usually linked to the persecution ofthe Jewish people in Europe during World War II and surely, this genocidal period provides morethan an ample justification for the declaration that they will never let it happen to them again. Infact, the history of the persecution of Jews is centuries old but the genocide and the postwarestablishment of the state of Israel has endowed those two words never again with a particularmeaning. The Jewish people do not forget either their enemies or their friends.

My next article in this series is where the rough stuff starts because it brings 9/11 into play andwith it, hints of conspiracies and speculation unmatched by anything in recent living memory andthat includes the JFK assassination and the UFO controversy. It is a nightmare for intelligence andintelligent people. The reason I have taken so long to get to this point is simple. Islamic terrorismagainst the West did not begin with 9/11. When that day is commemorated, every single citizen ofWestern democracies, who believes in our rights and freedoms, hard-won across centuries should

give pause for thought. We could do worse than pledge ourselves never to forget those who diedprior to 9/11. The relatives and loved ones of those who lost their lives in terrorist attacks prior tothe World Trade Center attack of 9/11, 2001, have their memories and their grief. Those whowere lost at the embassies and aboard the USS Cole are among the honored dead. We shouldnever forget them.

Refs.

[1] Pierre Tristam History of the Taliban: Who They Are, What They Want


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English: Tentang Terrorisme

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Transcript of English: Tentang Terrorisme