Friday, August 11, 2006

Thank you, Senatory Kyl, for Paying Attention To How Terrorists Become Terrorists   [Andy McCarthy]

One thing that comes through reading the papers this morning is the danger posed by paramilitary training sponsored by terrorist organizations for the last quarter-century — especially in the Afghan/Pakistan border region.  Evidence of prior paramilitary training has been a staple of just about every important terrorism investigation and prosecution since the early 1990s.

This excerpt from the Times is instructive:

[Mike] Sheehan [a former federal and NYPD counterterrorism official] said the hands-on training in explosives and trade craft that Al Qaeda or another organized group could provide were what could “graduate a homegrown cell of people that are in the minor leagues to the major leagues of terrorism, as well as providing some strategic direction.”  Those arrested in Britain are all British citizens, primarily of Pakistani origin, and with possible ties back to Pakistan, according to British officials. ... Mr. bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are believed to be in hiding in Pakistan, which counterterrorism officials fear has become a center of terrorist plotting.

 

 

John O. Brennan, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said Al Qaeda connections for the alleged plotters could cover a range of possibilities, from direct ties to the group’s leaders to links with people who may at some point have trained in a Qaeda camp. The latter was more likely, he said. Whether it was hatched in Britain or Pakistan, Mr. Brennan said, the thwarted plot suggests the long-term nature of the threat posed by the movement Mr. bin Laden helped found. Al Qaeda, the name Mr. bin Laden gave to his organization in 1988 when it was still fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan, means “the base” or “the foundation” in Arabic, he noted. “The intention of Al Qaeda was to create a base or foundation for a long-term struggle,” Mr. Brennan said. “Its leaders are thinking in terms of the Crusades and a conflict that lasts for many, many years.”

 

Now that it may finally be fashionable to worry about this stuff, it's worth noting that the superb Senator Jon Kyl (R.Az), has been way ahead of the curve.  Back when the Times and other MSM outlets were writing editorials criticizing the Ashcroft DOJ terrorism prosecutions as big nothings because the "only" thing the would-be terrorists in places like Lackawanna, Portland and Virginia had really done was paramilitary training, Sen. Kyl was busy strengthening the immigration and material support laws to make it easier to exclude, deport and prosecute the trainees.  If there are sleeper cells in our country — and it would be foolish to suppose there aren't — it's the people who've had this training (in explosives, combat, hijacking, etc.) that we need to worry about, even if they haven't done anything else ... yet.

 

08/11 05:10 AMShare