An answer to an American question

A question that has been prominent in American media and US political speech in the last few years has been, "Why do they [terrorists] hate us?". Which is a very valid question, because to fight terrorism you should know its roots and causes and start the fight there. But the problem is that these politicians and analysts have stopped short of seeking (or admitting) the real answer.

The following paragraph is an excerpt from an interview with Michael Scheuer, a very colorful person who's a 22-year CIA veteran that served as the Chief of Alec Station, the Osama bin Laden Unit at the Counterterrorist Center.

Q: Where does the major danger lie now?

A: For America? That we could very well be defeated oversees and at home. And the source of it is clearly that we have yet to find a politician in either party who's willing to tell the American people the truth. We continue to be harangued by President Bush and Senator Clinton and former President Clinton and Senator McCain about how Americans must fight this war because we're being attacked because we have freedoms and liberties and women in the workplace and a whole list of ephemera that have nothing to do with this war at all.

We're being attacked, Britain is being attacked, our allies are being attacked because we've installed and backed and implemented a set of policies in the Middle East for the last 30 years or more. And we're being attacked because of what we do, not because of who we are. And by refusing to talk about that, I'm afraid the American people, at least, don't have a good idea of just how dangerous the threat is that we face.

The interview was part of PBS' program Frontline, the episode was titled The Cell Next Door. It talks about an alleged terrorist cell in Toronto that was uncovered, its members arrested and are awaiting trial thanks to information from a self-described Muslim fundamentalist, dubbed the Radical Informant. Quite interesting. But I digress.

To fight terrorism one must eliminate the conditions that breed it, that might be a process that will take some time, and it certainly will not be an awe-inspiring show of force that some want it to be, but it's the only way real and lasting results can be achieved. The US needs to rethink its foreign policy and address two particularly fundamental issues; the injustice the Palestinians are subjected to, and the US support of the tyrannical Arab regimes.

Technorati tags: War on Terror, Terrorism, US Foreign Policy

November 9th, 2005

In remembrance of lives lost.

Zarqawi's death

A piece of good news from a sea of tragedy in Iraq. One shouldn't rejoice in the end of life, and I wouldn't describe my feelings as happy but that of reflection on the crimes this person committed and the suffering he brought upon so many lives.

The Arabic concept of "revenge" comes to mind, or what we call in Arabic Thar, it is an old Arabic custom that the family of a victim will not accept condolences for his death until the killer has met the same fate, or has been brought to justice. After Jordan announced the capture of an Al Qaueda thug who was an associate of Zarqawi and apparently responsible for the killing of a Jordanian citizen who traveled to Iraq for business, I was really shocked to see the king and queen go and offer condolences to the family of the deceased. The family in interviews thanked the king for taking Thar on their behalf.

No news about Al Qaueda or Zarqawi would be complete without a mention of a Al Jazeera, I was surprised to not find a picture of Zarqawi's body on Al Jazeera's website, although they are notorious for their lack of censorship. While writing this post the picture was shown but under an article about how publishing the picture is another American violation to the Geneva Convention, ah give me a freaking break!

The news about Jordanian Intelligence playing a part to bring the end of Zarqawi is a bonus and hopefully can bring closure to the families of the Amman hotel bombings. Good riddance.

Egypt مصر

Explosions rock the resort egyptian town of Dahab on the Red Sea gulf of Aqaba, 10's reported dead Yahoo news

Update: by the latest count 23 dead and 62 injured, no claims of responsibility as of yet.

The ugly face of terrorism has shown itself again, such loss of life, the sad fact is that I think people are numbed by it all, it's becoming a matter of when and where the next attack is going to be. Match that with the massive loss of life going on in Iraq on a daily basis, you get a good picture of the bleak reality of today's world.
Deepest condolences to the families of victims.

Bin Laden's latest message and Hamas

In his latest installment that was aired on Al Jazeera Sunday, Bin Laden carries on an emerging theme in Al Qaueda's rhetoric, Palestine. Al Qaueda is a Johnny-come-lately on the list of countries, organizations, and people that attach themselves to the Palestinian cause for their own self-benefit, and that is by far the last thing the cause needs. We saw Al Zawahiri come out with a similar theme in March after Hamas' win in the elections urging them to fight on.

Hamas' response to both messages has been to shrug the first off and turn a deaf ear to the other. It was very encouraging seeing such a reaction from Hamas, one would hope this may open The West's eyes to realities in the Middle East and the fact that they cannot color the whole region with the very broad brush they use. The Bush administration did that in the lead up to war in Iraq, when they claimed links between Saddam and Al Qaueda and hence 9/11, sadly some people still believe these links exist.

Technorati tags: Bin Laden, Zawahiri, Al Qaueda, Hamas

Zawahiri dead? Episode 2

After last week's attack on a tiny Pakistani village that supposedly targeted Al Qaueda leadership including second in command, whom I like to call: root of the evil that is Al Qaueda, Ayman Zawahiri, the outcome of the attack is not yet clear. It is likely that the strike has missed its intended target, reports say that drones or UAV's were circling the area for a few days prior to the attack, not exactly the most covert of operations.

Some reports stated that the victims were all civilians, while others claim that some Al Qaueda senior members were in fact killed in the attack, including alleged chief Al Qaueda bomb expert.

What's clear though, is that the intelligence woes of the US continue, and each failure to capture or kill Al Qaueda leaders, and each tape release by Bin Laden or Zawahiri, the US intelligence shortcomings are made more and more apparent. This was not the first failed strike, but the US policy remains the same, according to a former CIA operative that was speaking on FOX news, the CIA cannot afford but to carry out such strikes whenever intelligence is available about Al Qaueda leadership in an area. As bad as a flop attack looks for the US, who's going to stop them from doing it? They have refused to apologize for the latest attack and they'll continue to flex their muscles and enjoy the perks of being the world's super power. If they would only do us a favor and manage to do something super like getting Bin Laden, Zawahiri, or Zarqawi..

Technorati tags: Bin Laden, Zawahiri, Al Qaueda, US Intelligence

Zawahiri dead?

Reports have stated that an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) missile attack on an area on the border of Afghanistan, targeted a suspected group of Al Qaueda leaders. It's possible that among the casualties is Al Qaueda second in command, Ayman Al Zawahiri.

more on ABC news

Technorati tags: Zawahiri, Al Qaueda

Al Qaeda is desperate

Reading into the latest rediculus Al Zarqwi's audio recording Al-Zarqawi Threatens to Kill Jordan's King and Zarqawi: Amman bombs weren't aimed at Muslims, makes me wonder how stupid this "organization" really is? Did they actually expect the Jordanian reaction to be any different? To these senseless killings? To these attacks on Jordan's stability and well being? What the hell did they expect?

Well obviously they're feeling the crunch, that's the only justification I see for issuing such a statement with a lame attempt to appease Jordanians by claiming the wedding wasn't a target. Now the other question is, how stupid do they think we, Jordanians, are?! They have such nerve to suggest that there was another target and the wedding was collateral damage, anyway that's beside the issue, as I said in the previous post, it was an attack against Jordan. Period.

The good news is that people's support matters a great deal to them, and their support is dwindling. I want to point to this Al Jazeera analysis in Arabic, published a few days ago titled "Jordan explosions.. their mistakes and their effects on Al Qaeda's path", the analysis is simply signed with Yaser Za'etreh, a Jordanian writer. The writer goes into a lengthy explanation about how the Amman attacks were a mistake, a political, religious, and media mistake. The article is written in a very pro-Al Qaeda tone that was painful to read, but the author mentions something that's interesting, when he talks about how the attacks were a media/PR and a security mistake because they announced the number of perpetrators and specifically mentioned one of them was a woman, which lead to the capture of the fourth would be bomber. The author goes on to say that because of this a strong Al Qaeda supporter asked Zarqawi to execute his spokesperson/media official and show the pictures of his execution on the web.

This is such a desperate attempt at damage control, while at the same time it's an attempt to destabilize the country and terrorize the people by asking them to stay away from hotels and embassies, it will not work. The Jordanian resilient response had its intended effect, as did their unity in saying No to Terrorism, and no to Zarqawi. I hope this will be the first of many blows to Al Qaeda, they cannot exist without the people's support, and more and more people are seeing the light.

Amman, the day after...

It still hasn't been 24 hours since the attacks on Amman took place, but it feels like an eternity has passed.. after the initial shock, sad realization of the scope, painful details revealed, knowing how close it hit to family and loved ones, and gripping to every bit and piece of news.. it's just a day that I wouldn't wish on anyone.

It's so hard to have a coherent thought, but I do want to try to make a few points.
Firstly, the media coverage. All you could hear on the US cable news networks (FOX, CNBC, CNN) was an attack on 3 US owned hotels in Amman, and how this is likely the result of Jordan being an ally to the US. I managed to catch a live feed from Al Arabiya and the report they kept running between their endless analyses and interviews started with: an attack on 3 hotels that are frequented by Israelis and other westerners. It pissed the hell out me!! I know it's naive to say this, but I wish that for once news networks would just state the facts without trying to spin the story one way or another. The story was Jordan being attacked, ownership of the hotels doesn't matter the least bit! And they even got that part wrong, check out Natasha's post about that. Al Arabiya in that stupid report they played over and over sounded like it's a justification, heck these hotels are frequented by Israelis, bomb them!

While I'm on the issue of justification, the other point I want to make is about a segment of the Jordanian society that, outwardly or inwardly, supported such actions when they took place around us. When it happened to the west, serves them right for what they did to our brethren in Palestine and Iraq. When it's happening in Iraq, that's legitimate resistance against occupation. Now that it sadly hit home I just pray that they'd see the light and realize that terror is NEVER a method, it's never the answer. I won't hold my breath for that though, I know that sadly many of them will echo similar rhetoric to that of Al Arabiya (Israelis and westerners), and Al Zarqawi (infidels). I just hope that every Jordanian will take a look deep down inside and realize what truly matters. Hopefully this will clip any wings extremist had in Jordan.

What really worries me is that we've been through this drill before, we've seen how events cascade after something like this. Look at the September 11 2001 events in the US, the ramifications of that day are still unfolding. I pray that Jordan won't be too adversely affected by what happened yesterday. I pray that Jordan will still be a free, open, and welcoming country. I pray that the economy will continue to grow to the boom that we all were anticipating.

Finally I want to allude to the awesome job that follow planeteers (names gathered from various websites: Haitham, Issam, Natasha, and Roba) did keeping the world updated on the Global Voices website, thank you guys. I'd also like to acknowledge all JP bloggers, reading your posts made me feel a little closer to home in these hard times. I'm proud to be a part of JP.

May God have mercy on those lost, help those who are suffering, and watch over our beloved Jordan.

Amman in the Heart

May God protect our Jordan and help those who were affected by these horrible events

Latest from Amman via Roba