| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 5:49 am Post subject: London is Burning |
| Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2005 09:33:29 -0700
From: "Jeff Blankfort" <jblankfort@earthlink.net>
To:
Subject: London is Burning
London is Burning by Gilad Atzmon
7.7.05
We are used to seeing images of horrors from the Iraqi capital. For most Londoners and Britons, those images are nothing more than a remote call from a foreign country. Somehow, most of us have managed to forget that it is basically our government who is responsible for the continued horror in Iraq.
Today's images of horror are coming from London, seemingly, Baghdad and London appear to share a very similar fate.
I am sitting in my front room watching BBC 24 learning that the metropolitan police and the emergency services are operating according to a plan. Clearly they all anticipated such an attack. A government that is fully engaged in some criminal colonialist activity better prepare its voters for the outcome of its policies. A minute ago I heard Tony Blair telling the nation that ‘our’ determination to defend ‘our values’ of life is greater than ‘their’ determination to cause death and destruction. I ask myself, what values is he referring to? Surely the continuation of the robbery of Arab oil is a major value for Blair but it isn’t my value. Tony Blair, a man who initiated a war without UN backing, a man with blood on his hands wants us to believe that he is really concerned about African poverty and climate changes.
Whether we like it or not, we must admit that Terror is a message and we better learn to listen to it attentively:
First, it tells us that we are as vulnerable as anyone else.
Second , it tells us that we may have to let other people live their life according to their values and beliefs.
Third, it tells us that we must never again give our votes to war criminals.
More than anything else it tells us that we have a moral duty. It is down to us to stop our governments. It is our duty to stand up and to demand the resignation of Blair who is responsible for the death of so many Iraqis and arguably now many Innocent Britons. We must remember that voting in a non-ethical politician makes us all into active shareholders in a criminal company.
We know already that both in America and Israel the consequences of terror led the general public towards an endorsement of right wing zealously. I do hope that the British people will follow the Spanish public’s reaction. Warmongers and militant aggressors must be ousted from our political climate. Only then peace will prevail. | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 8:45 am Post subject: London bombings tied to Madrid attackers? |
| London bombings tied to Madrid attackers?
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British intelligence officials believe today's bomb attacks on London's mass transit system might be tied to the North African-based terrorists who carried out the strikes in Madrid last year, according to a terrorism analyst.
Steven Emerson told MSNBC he spoke with an intelligence official who suspected "our North African boys."
"There is an interconnected network of Algerians, of Moroccans, of Saudis operating throughout Europe," said Emerson, according to an unofficial transcript posted by The Counterterrorism Blog.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that British police have asked their European counterparts for information on a Moroccan man, Mohamed Guerbouzi, in relation to the attacks. Guerbouzi has been under investigation in Britain in connection with the Spain bombings and a 2003 suicide attack in Morocco.
Emerson also pointed out that the timing of the attack coincides with the opening of the trial of Abu Hamza al-Masri, a radical Islamic cleric in London charged with incitement. The cleric has been indicted in the U.S. on charges of trying to set up a jihad training camp in Oregon.
"The simultaneous nature of the bombings and the potential there was a suicide bomber suggests very strongly that was some type of al-Qaida offshoot of known radical Islamic groups or unknown groups, individuals at least, plotting this for a long time," Emerson said.
A group calling itself the Organization of al-Qaida Jihad in Europe claimed responsibility for the London bombings and threatened Italy, Denmark and other countries that have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Heroic mujahedeen carried out a sacred attack in London, and here is Britain burning in fear, terror, and fright in the north, south, east and west," said a statement posted on the jihadist website Al-Qal'ah (Fortress).
The group said the attacks were in response to "massacres" carried out in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We have repeatedly warned the government and people of Britain, and we have now fulfilled our promise and have carried out a sacred military attack in Britain," the statement said. "We continue to warn the governments of Denmark, Italy and all the Crusaders that they will meet the same punishment if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan."
Analyst Zachary Abuza, in a post on the The Counterterrorism Blog, said that while the previously unknown group may have direct ties to al-Qaida, "what is more likely is to emerge from the investigations into the London bombings is a cell that is very similar to that which perpetrated the Madrid bombings."
He described it as a "fairly autonomous cell comprised of a marginalized diaspora that had some roots to extremists in their own country, but was really acting independently."
The good news, he said, is that these independent groups are probably too small and autonomous to launch a major catastrophic attack.
"The bad news is that these groups are difficult to penetrate, and their operations, though small are still large enough to cause an unacceptable loss of life and have adverse economic implications."
Abuza pointed out that many terrorism experts assert that al-Qaida, as an organization, is defunct, with its remaining leadership cowering in root cellars.
"I think they overstate al-Qaida's demise; but they do agree that the real threat that al-Qaida poses is less as an organization and more as an ideology and inspiration," Abuza said.
In Spain last year, officials initially blamed the Basque separatist group ETA for the massive ten-bomb attack on three Madrid train stations during the morning rush hour that killed at least 200 people and wounded 1,200 only three days before the countrys general election.
But later, a letter emerged from a group called Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the attack on behalf of al-Qaida. The letter, which called the plot "Operation Death Trains," said: "We have succeeded in infiltrating the heart of crusader Europe and struck one of the bases of the crusader alliance."
A document posted on an Internet message board just three months before the Madrid attacks said al-Qaida planned to carry out attacks to sever Madrid from the U.S. and its other allies in the war on terror.
"We think the Spanish government will not stand more than two blows, or three at the most, before it will be forced to withdraw because of the public pressure on it," the al-Qaida document said.
"If its forces remain after these blows, the victory of the Socialist Party will be almost guaranteed – and the withdrawal of Spanish forces will be on its campaign manifesto."
That prediction was fulfilled three days after the attacks when the Socialists overcame a late deficit in the polls and ousted Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party.
The new Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero immediately vowed to pull out 1,300 Spanish troops in Iraq by June 30 if the United Nations "doesn't take control of Iraq."
Zapatero, who fulfilled his vow, called the Iraq war a mistake and said Spain's participation in it "has been a total error."
Click here: List One News Item
The statement in which the group claimed responsibility for the attacks contained an error in one of the Qura’nic verses it cited. That suggests that the claim is phony.This is not something Al Qaeda would do.- MSNBC TV translator Jacob Keryakes, June 7th.
"By Way Of Deception Thou Shalt Do War"
See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.- George Bush May 24, 2005
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050524-3.html
June 10, 2005, issue of the Los Angeles Times reported another disturbing feature about the 9/11 attacks:
A chilling new detail of U.S. intelligence failures emerged Thursday, when the Justice Department disclosed that about 20 months before the Sept. 11 attacks, a CIA official had blocked a memo intended to alert the FBI that two known Al Qaeda operatives had entered the country.... If the FBI had received the official communique from the CIA’s special Osama bin Laden unit when it was ready for transmittal in January 2000, its agents likely could have tracked down the men, according to U.S. intelligence officials familiar with a newly declassified report of the Justice Department’s inspector general.... But the report’s conclusion that an agent had written a memo specifically designed for transmittal to the FBI to alert the bureau to the men’s presence — and that a supervisor deliberately had prevented it from being sent .
Robert Novak
September 13, 2001
WASHINGTON -- Security experts and airline officials agree privately that the simultaneous hijacking of four jetliners was an "inside job,"
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20010913.shtml | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 9:07 am Post subject: Frank Gaffney - Already trying to use London to stop the Gaz |
| Neocon Israel firster Frank Gaffney is at it yet again (he is mentioned in the following 'Men from JINSA and CSP' article that appeared in 'The Nation'):
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&s=vest
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Subject: Frank Gaffney - Already trying to use London to stop the Gaza Withdrawal
I'm sure you remember Frank Gaffney from the PNAC Group where he's famous
for working on "Rebuilding America's Defenses" and other such documents. Now he's
trying to pull the plug on the Gaza withdrawal over the London bombings...
Mik
http://www.nationalreview.com/gaffney/gaffney200507071128.asp
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July 07, 2005, 11:28 a.m.
War Footing
The attack in London is a stark reminder of what we must do to prevail.
The wave of bomb attacks that shattered the morning rush hour in London today should also destroy the complacency with which many Americans had come to view the war being waged against us by terror-wielding foes. The death and destruction in the subway system known as the "Tube" below ground and on a bus above is a vivid reminder of a central reality of our time: While we have been spared such horrors here for nearly four years, anyone who thinks we can safely divert our attention from this threat is kidding himself, and putting the rest of us at grave risk.
At this writing, not much is known about the extent — let alone the detailed nature or specific perpetrators — of the bloodletting in London. What is clear, however, is that the attackers exhibited the sort of calculation and ruthlessness that has come to be associated with the ideology at the heart of the war on terror: Islamofascism. Synchronized attacks on public infrastructure and spaces with a view to murdering as many civilians as possible and timed to interrupt or otherwise influence national or international events is a hallmark of those we have been fighting since 9/11 in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere around the globe.
It is surely premature to draw too many lessons from this latest terrorist incident before the dust has settled, literally. Still a few conclusions seem unavoidable:
First, the determination of our enemies to destroy as many of us as possible remains a threat to all Western democratic societies. Notions that the Free World can safely disengage from this war or any of its fronts — including Iraq — should be put to rest along with the unwarranted sense of security born of the absence of deadly post-9/11 attacks here at home.
Second, the nature of those Western societies — in particular, their openness, their civil liberties, and the freedom of movement they encourage — makes them particularly susceptible to such attacks, as well as the object of the enemy's malevolence.
Third, infrastructure like public transportation are obvious targets for our foes. They are difficult to protect, have many exploitable vulnerabilities, and if attacked can almost guarantee sizeable casualties and extensive economic dislocation. Like the pre-election bombings in Madrid's train system last year, those today were timed to capitalize upon and affect a major political event: the G-8 summit meeting being hosted by Britain at Gleneagles, Scotland.
Fourth, for the authorities to have any hope of contending with such threats, they are going to have to engage the public to a far greater extent than has been done to date. Vastly multiplying the eyes and ears alert to potential attacks — and to those involved in their planning or execution — is essential in free societies. In particular, the U.S. government must make a redoubled effort to enlist and empower the American people in this and other aspects of the war effort, notwithstanding the protests to be expected from anti-war and civil liberties activists.
Fifth, governments, like their publics, must remain seized with and give priority to countering terrorists and their state-sponsors. While Tony Blair's stated determination to have the G-8 meeting remain focused on the priorities he had previously set — specifically, debt relief and other aid for Africa and initiatives meant to affect global warming — is understandable, the reality is that the focus on agenda items that are unrelated to waging and prevailing in this war is a distraction we cannot afford at the moment. To be sure, that Islamofascism is advancing in sub-Saharan Africa argues for devising strategies for countering that menace. Those should not be confused, however, with feel-good measures that are likely to prove, at best, to be undisciplined and probably counterproductive.
Sixth, whether Islamists prove to have been responsible for today's attacks in London or not, concerted efforts are in order to counter and defeat their ideology. This requires not only military measures aimed at disrupting their operations and denying the safe-havens from which they are prepared and launched. In addition to denying the terrorists funding and material support, we must also engage in political warfare of the type that previously de-legitimized and helped undermine Soviet communism. Our natural allies in such a strategy — and its principal focus — should be non-Islamist Muslims. After all, they are as much at threat from the Islamofascists, who seek to dominate them, as are the rest of us.
Finally, steps that will reward Islamofascists for their terrorism while weakening the West's ability to defend against them should be urgently reconsidered. The most imminent of these is the creation of a new state-sponsor of terror in the Palestinian territories — the inevitable result of Israel's planned surrender of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank under present, and foreseeable, circumstances. Islamists in those areas, notably Hamas, are making clear their conviction that it is their terror that will be responsible for "liberating" such territories and that they will use the latter to further the liberation of other, still-"occupied" lands. This is hardly a perception we wish to reinforce, or an outcome we wish to facilitate.
Britain was not the only nation attacked today. Of course, it has borne the blow. But it is the Western world — of which the United Kingdom is a critical part — that has been shown once again to be in the crosshairs of terrorists. Applying preliminary insights like the foregoing will help all of us counter and, in due course, defeat the foes that use terror against us.
— Frank J. Gaffney Jr. is an NRO contributor and president of the Center for Security Policy in Washington.
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Do You Yahoo!? | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 9:17 am Post subject: A country cannot survive treason from within... |
| Traitorous Israel firsters Frank Gaffney are mentioned below:
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within."
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within."
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear."
Cicero Marcus Tullius - Born on January 3, 106 BC and was murdered on December 7, 43 BC.
"If the imperial state itself was divided and some sectors were not convinced of the need to go to war, which group was able to overcome that resistance, by-pass established intelligence channels (and create its own circuit), fabricate its own “intelligence and successfully lead the US to war? If war was not promoted by and in the interests of the US oil companies, and contrary to military doctrine of fighting two wars simultaneously, in whose geo-political interests was the war?
The War and the Israel-Zionist Hypothesis
The hypothesis which most fits the data is the Israel hypothesis – specifically that the principal architects and theoreticians of US world supremacy and the principal promoters of sequential wars, particularly in the Middle East, were influential Zionists in the top echelons of the Pentagon, National Security Council and in well-connected research centers “advising” the government while acting on behalf of the expansionist interests of the State of Israel.
The key author of the strategic doctrine of undisputed US world power was Wolfowitz, back in the first Bush Administration (1991). He joined with other influential Zionists like Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and a host of pro-Israel extremists to prepare a strategy paper for the Israeli state (1996) in which the Palestinians were to be physically driven from all of Palestine and Israel would become the regional power in the Middle East. Both Feith and Wolfowitz, early in their public careers were accused and chastised for turning US government documents over to the Israeli government. For at least twenty years they have been actively collaborating over Israeli policy and, in and out of government, they have worked intimately with Israeli officials in the United States and Israel."
The meaning of war: A heterodox perspective by James Petras, March 13, 2005
(An abridged version of this long treatise)
http://www.livejournal.com/~mparent7777/825272.html | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 3:33 pm Post subject: LONDON BOMBS: AL-QAEDA FIGURE WARNS OF SCORE TO SETTLE |
| LONDON BOMBS: AL-QAEDA FIGURE WARNS OF SCORE TO SETTLE WITH BERLUSCONI
London, 8 July (AKI) - One day after the attacks in London, a leading member of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia has warned that they still have a score to settle with Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. The threat, signed by Lewis Atiyallah - well-known for his contributions to the Saudi al-Qaeda magazine Sawt Al-Jihad - comes in a document entitled: 'Blair, this is an epic war', published on the Internet on Friday.
It follows another statement on Thursday from a previously unknown group, the Secret Organisation Group of al-Qaeda of Jihad Organisation in Europe, which said it was behind the blast, and threatened both Italy and Denmark.
"Yes, Blair is right, it is an epic battle and not partial, as your American allies claim" Atiyallah's statement reads, "and if you want proof, look at the new weapon used by the mujahadeen in Iraq, who kidnap your children and Western followers." The message goes on to mention "when the mujahadeen kidnapped four Italians", referring to the four security guards kidnapped in Iraq in April 2004, one of whom, Fabrizio Quattrocchi, was killed by his captors.
"One of their [the kidnappers] requests was that Berlusconi should apologise for the violation of the rights of Islam and Muslims. This is an old debt that Berlusconi still hasn't paid: on that occasion the Iraqis decided to talk in the name of Islam and Muslims to make Berlusconi pay his debts for the blood of their children spilt by Italians. This is an example to show how the epic war and Iraqi situation will settle many scores."
While the four Italian security guards were being held hostage, via statements issued on the Internet the suspected kidnappers called on the Italian premier to apologise for his controversial comment following the September 11 attacks in America, that Western civilisation is superior to Islam.
"Without any help or prompting, or leadership and logistical support the mujahadeen carried out the plan fearlessly," Atiyallah also said in the statement, which hypothesises the war in Iraq as the reason for the London attacks. "The next [attack] to come will be worse," Atiyallah threatens, announcing that there will be "a huge explosion". He goes on to say, "The American generals consider the situation under control, while Tony Blair affirms that this is an epic battle: this is true and the moment has come to settle scores with the whole of the West over Iraq."
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.185108467&par=0
_________________ | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 9:48 pm Post subject: Robert Fisk: The reality of this barbaric bombing |
| Robert Fisk: The reality of this barbaric bombing
If we are fighting insurgency in Iraq, what makes us think insurgency won't come to us?
By Robert Fisk
08 July 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp
"If you bomb our cities," Osama bin Laden said in one of his recent video tapes, "we will bomb yours." There you go, as they say. It was crystal clear Britain would be a target ever since Tony Blair decided to join George Bush's "war on terror" and his invasion of Iraq. We had, as they say, been warned. The G8 summit was obviously chosen, well in advance, as Attack Day.
And it's no use Mr Blair telling us yesterday that "they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear". "They" are not trying to destroy "what we hold dear". They are trying to get public opinion to force Blair to withdraw from Iraq, from his alliance with the United States, and from his adherence to Bush's policies in the Middle East. The Spanish paid the price for their support for Bush - and Spain's subsequent retreat from Iraq proved that the Madrid bombings achieved their objectives - while the Australians were made to suffer in Bali.
It is easy for Tony Blair to call yesterdays bombings "barbaric" - of course they were - but what were the civilian deaths of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the children torn apart by cluster bombs, the countless innocent Iraqis gunned down at American military checkpoints? When they die, it is "collateral damage"; when "we" die, it is "barbaric terrorism".
If we are fighting insurgency in Iraq, what makes us believe insurgency won't come to us? One thing is certain: if Tony Blair really believes that by "fighting terrorism" in Iraq we could more efficiently protect Britain - fight them there rather than let them come here, as Bush constantly says - this argument is no longer valid.
To time these bombs with the G8 summit, when the world was concentrating on Britain, was not a stroke of genius. You don't need a PhD to choose another Bush-Blair handshake to close down a capital city with explosives and massacre more than 30 of its citizens. The G8 summit was announced so far in advance as to give the bombers all the time they needed to prepare.
A co-ordinated system of attacks of the kind we saw yesterday would have taken months to plan - to choose safe houses, prepare explosives, identify targets, ensure security, choose the bombers, the hour, the minute, to plan the communications (mobile phones are giveaways). Co-ordination and sophisticated planning - and the usual utter ruthlessness with regard to the lives of the innocent - are characteristic of al-Qa'ida. And let us not use - as our television colleagues did yesterday - "hallmarks", a word identified with quality silver rather than base metal.
And now let us reflect on the fact that yesterday, the opening of the G8, so critical a day, so bloody a day, represented a total failure of our security services - the same intelligence "experts" who claim there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when there were none, but who utterly failed to uncover a months-long plot to kill Londoners.
Trains, planes, buses, cars, metros. Transportation appears to be the science of al-Qa'ida's dark arts. No one can search three million London commuters every day. No one can stop every tourist. Some thought the Eurostar might have been an al-Qa'ida target - be sure they have studied it - but why go for prestige when your common or garden bus and Tube train are there for the taking.
And then come the Muslims of Britain, who have long been awaiting this nightmare. Now every one of our Muslims becomes the "usual suspect", the man or woman with brown eyes, the man with the beard, the woman in the scarf, the boy with the worry beads, the girl who says she's been racially abused.
I remember, crossing the Atlantic on 11 September 2001 - my plane turned round off Ireland when the US closed its airspace - how the aircraft purser and I toured the cabins to see if we could identify any suspicious passengers. I found about a dozen, of course, totally innocent men who had brown eyes or long beards or who looked at me with "hostility". And sure enough, in just a few seconds, Osama bin Laden turned nice, liberal, friendly Robert into an anti-Arab racist.
And this is part of the point of yesterday's bombings: to divide British Muslims from British non-Muslims (let us not mention the name Christians), to encourage the very kind of racism that Tony Blair claims to resent.
But here's the problem. To go on pretending that Britain's enemies want to destroy "what we hold dear" encourages racism; what we are confronting here is a specific, direct, centralised attack on London as a result of a "war on terror" which Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara has locked us into. Just before the US presidential elections, Bin Laden asked: "Why do we not attack Sweden?"
Lucky Sweden. No Osama bin Laden there. And no Tony Blair. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 3:16 pm Post subject: LA Times: US support of Israel motivation for 9/11 attack |
| LA Times: US support of Israel motivation for 9/11 attack:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/02/19/la-times-u-s-policy-on-israel-key-motive-for-911-attack.php
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From: "Karen"
Subject: RE: LONDON BOMBS: AL-QAEDA FIGURE WARNS OF SCORE TO SETTLE...
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 10:02:08 -0400
I probably should have sent this to everyone yesterday. But this and the other emails I got could be the makings of a World War III justification by the Cabal. Below are a few disturbing articles or pieces of info, but it's the one headlined: “Ex-Mossad Chief Calls For World War After London Attack” that is the most disturbing. Are they laying the groundwork?
Israel Was Warned Ahead of First Blast
13:30 Jul 07, '05 / 30 Sivan 5765
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9405.htm
http://snipurl.com/g3ow
07/07/05: (IsraelNN.com) Army Radio quoting unconfirmed reliable sources
reported a short time ago that Scotland Yard had intelligence warnings of
the attacks a short time before they occurred.
The Israeli Embassy in London was notified in advance, resulting in Finance
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu remaining in his hotel room rather than make his
way to the hotel adjacent to the site of the first explosion, a Liverpool
Street train station, where he was to address and economic summit.
At present, train and bus service in London have been suspended following
the series of attacks. No terrorist organization has claimed responsibility
at this time.
Israeli officials stress the advanced Scotland Yard warning does not in any
way indicate Israel was the target [SIC!] in the series of apparent terror
attacks.
IsraelNationalNews ©
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=85346
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Netanyahu Changed Plans Due to Warning :
British police told the Israeli Embassy in London minutes before Thursday's
explosions that they had received warnings of possible terror attacks in the
city, a senior Israeli official said.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050707/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_brita\
in_explosions_1
Ex-Mossad Chief Calls For World War After London Attack
By Efraim Halevi
07/07/05 "The Jerusalem Post" - - The multiple, simultaneous explosions
that took place today on the London transportation system were the work of
perpetrators who had an operational capacity of considerable scope. They
have come a long way since the two attacks of the year 1998 against the
American embassies in Nairobi and Dar-Es-Salaam, and the aircraft actions of
September 11, 2001.
There was careful planning, intelligence gathering, and a sophisticated
choice of timing as well as near-perfect execution. We are faced with a
deadly and determined adversary who will stop at nothing and will persevere
as long as he exists as a fighting terrorist force.
One historical irony: I doubt whether the planners knew that one of the
target areas, that in Russell Square, was within a stone's throw of a
building that served as the first headquarters of the World Zionist
Organization that preceded the State of Israel.
It was at 77 Great Russell Street that Dr. Chaim Weizmann, a renowned
chemist, presided over the effort that culminated in the issuing of the
Balfour Declaration, the first international recognition of the right of the
Jewish people to a national home in what was then still a part of the
Ottoman Empire.
We are in the throes of a world war, raging over the entire globe and
characterized by the absence of lines of conflict and an easily identifiable
enemy. There are sometimes long pauses between one attack and another,
consequently creating the wrong impression that the battle is all over, or
at least in the process of being won.
Generally speaking, the populations at large are not involved in the
conflict, and by and large play the role of bystanders. But once in a while,
these innocents are caught up in the maelstrom and suffer the most cruel and
wicked of punishments meted out by those who are not bound by any rules of
conduct or any norms of structured society. For a while, too short a while,
we are engrossed with the sheer horror of what we see and hear, but, with
the passage of time, our memories fade and we return to our daily lives,
forgetting that the war is still raging out there and more strikes are sure
to follow.
It cannot be said that seven years after this war broke out in east Africa,
we can see its conclusion. We are in for the long haul and we must brace
ourselves for more that will follow. The 'Great Wars' of the 20th century
lasted less than this war has already lasted, and the end is nowhere in
sight.
There will be supreme tests of leadership in this unique situation and
people will have to trust the wisdom and good judgment of those chosen to
govern them. The executives must be empowered to act resolutely and to take
every measure necessary to protect the citizens of their country and to
carry the combat into whatever territory the perpetrators and their temporal
and spiritual leaders are inhabiting.
The rules of combat must be rapidly adjusted to cater to the necessities of
this new and unprecedented situation, and international law must be
rewritten in such a way as to permit civilization to defend itself. Anything
short of this invites disaster and must not be allowed to happen.
The aim of the enemy is not to defeat western civilization but to destroy
its sources of power and existence, and to render it a relic of the past. It
does not seek a territorial victory or a regime change; it wants to turn
western civilization into history and will stop at nothing less than that.
It will show no mercy or compassion and no appreciation for these noble
values when practiced by us. This does not mean that we can or should assume
the norms of our adversaries, nor that we should act indiscriminately. It
does mean that the only way to ensure our safety and security will be to
obtain the destruction, the complete destruction, of the enemy.
MUCH HAS been said in recent years about the vital need for international
cooperation. There is no doubt that this is essential. Yet no measure of
this will suffice and it cannot replace the requirement that each and every
country effectively declare itself at war with international Islamist terror
and recruit the public to involve itself actively in the battle, under the
direction of the legal powers that be.
In the past, governments have been expected to provide security to their
citizens. The responsibility is still there, in principle. But in practice,
no government today can provide an effective 'suit of protection' for the
ordinary citizen. There can be no protection for every bus, every train,
every street, every square. In these times the ordinary citizen must be
vigilant and must make his personal contribution to the war effort. Private
enterprise will have to supplement the national effort in many walks of
life.
The measures that I have outlined above will not be easily adopted
overnight. When the US entered World War Two, Congress approved the
momentous decision by a majority of one vote. Profound cultural changes will
have to come about and the democratic way of life will be hard-pressed to
produce solutions that will enable the executive branch to perform its
duties and, at the same time, to preserve the basic tenets of our democratic
way of life. It will not be easy, but it will be essential not to lose sight
of every one of these necessities.
This war is already one of the longest in modern times; as things appear
now, it is destined to be part of our daily lives for many years to come,
until the enemy is eliminated, as it surely will be.
The writer, who heads the Center for Strategic and Policy Studies at the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is a former head of the Mossad.
Copyright 1995-2005 The Jerusalem Post
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-----Original Message-----
From: Cynthia
Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2005 7:51 AM
Subject: Re: LONDON BOMBS: AL-QAEDA FIGURE WARNS OF SCORE TO SETTLE...
LONDON BOMBS: AL-QAEDA FIGURE WARNS OF SCORE TO SETTLE WITH BERLUSCONI
I'm not buying this. There is a serious rift between Italy and the US because of the death of their intelligence agent and the abduction of an Egyptian citizen who was a CIA informant. Italy also announced that they plan with withdraw troops from Iraq in September.
There is no reason that al-Queda would target them. There is every reason that the neocons led by Michael Ledeen and his underworld cabal would. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 3:54 pm Post subject: Nobody Attacks Civilization |
| http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=6596
Nobody Attacks Civilization
by Charley Reese
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush went into their standard routine after the London bombings. This was an attack against civilization and all civilized nations, they said.
That's bosh and hokum, and it does a disservice to the people. The first step always in solving any problem is to define the problem correctly. There are no terrorists anywhere in the world whose goal is the destruction of civilization, Western or otherwise.
The terrorist attacks against the U.S., Great Britain and Spain are motivated exclusively by Western policies toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the presence of Western military forces in Islamic countries. Al-Qaeda, the ideological source of these attacks, has always been crystal-clear and specific about its reasons for declaring war against the United States.
You can't win a war unless you know who your enemy is, know why he is your enemy and know what his objectives are. Only then can you properly direct your military and political forces to combat him successfully.
Unfortunately, very early on, President Bush decided to create a mythical enemy of vague and ambiguous proportions and irrational motives. This was done to give carte blanche to the government to pursue policies that really had nothing to do with fighting al-Qaeda – e.g., invading Iraq, putting North Korea and Iran in the "axis of evil" and including groups on the enemies list that were in fact not our enemies.
The confusion this causes was illustrated by television coverage of the London attacks. Several commentators lumped together the terrorist attacks against public transport in Moscow, Madrid and London. However, the Moscow attack had nothing to do with the attacks in Madrid and London, or with us. Moscow is fighting Chechen rebels who want independence for Chechnya. Chechen attacks against Russia, like Palestinian attacks against Israel, are not directed at us. They are motivated by specific political objectives. Chechens and Palestinians have no desire to destroy civilization; they simply wish to take their place in the family of nations as independent countries.
You can't have a war against terrorism because, as many people have pointed out, terrorism is a tactic employed by people who have no real military power. It is not an entity. There is no worldwide terrorist organization.
Terrorist tactics work because we live in a wired world. Ten or 12 people can set off a few bombs in London, and the world turns its electronic eyes on the story and chats, discusses and shows video clips until some other event distracts it. The media attention and the inflated rhetoric of politicians magnify the terrorist act far beyond its actual import.
These attacks – pinpricks, really, in terms of any damage they do to national power – cannot be completely stopped. A few malcontents inspired by someone's rhetoric can get together and set off a bomb or two or shoot some people. Terrorists should be considered criminals, and their acts as ordinary crimes. Physically dealing with terrorists is properly ordinary police work. There is no war involved.
What the United States should be doing, instead of invading and occupying countries, is re-examining its foreign policy vis-à-vis the Islamic world. There is no natural conflict between the West and Islam. The followers and true believers of Osama bin Laden are a tiny minority. The best way to cut the ground out from under him is to develop and pursue policies that treat all of the Islamic countries with fairness and respect.
We don't do that at the present time. Because of the power of the Israeli lobby to skew our policy to benefit Israel, our Middle East policies are riddled with double and triple standards and reek of hypocrisy. Because of that, we are the best recruiter Osama bin Laden has.
But in the meantime, remember that terrorist attacks are primarily media events. You still have more to fear from the flu or accidents than you do from terrorists. | | | | Alpha | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
