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2004-03-22 Europe
The hunt for Zougam's cell goes on
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Posted by Dan Darling 2004-03-22 12:19:46 AM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 We also have many different languages, while the terrorist cells all speak Arabic. The extremists also move relatively freely across borders. In this sense, ironically, they are more European than we are."

Now there is a chillingly accurate statement. Or should I say, prediction?
Posted by B 2004-3-22 7:04:14 AM||   2004-3-22 7:04:14 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 This article proves the point that I made the other day. The intelligence services put too much stock into collecting information, rather than using the information they have to crack down on the bad guys and remove the threat they pose to society.

I don't believe they just accidently let this guy go. Rather, I think they let him go, but didn't have the resources to properly follow him. That he WAS asscociated with terrorists was, IMHO a no-brainer. While there is merit to letting the bad guys go and following them to their leaders - this story clearly shows the limits.

The "quiet, almost too quiet" of the terrorists on this attack shows that they have adapted to our monitoring their chatter. Articles like this one provide, IMHO, too much information to the terrorists and only helps them more.

There is a balance between collecting information and USING the information to accomplish an end goal. Clearly, in this case, the ideal to collect information, rather than to use it (ie: remove the terrorist threat) went astray.
Posted by B 2004-3-22 7:16:48 AM||   2004-3-22 7:16:48 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 All of which B is exactly why any purely defensive approach to fighting terrorism is doomed to failure.
Posted by 11A5S 2004-3-22 10:20:46 AM||   2004-3-22 10:20:46 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 11A5S - I completely agree.
Posted by B 2004-3-22 12:35:18 PM||   2004-3-22 12:35:18 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 
a 38-year-old Moroccan man, who came to Germany on a student visa to study engineering. According to the German authorities, Mr. Daki never enrolled n college, .... When the German police questioned Mr. Daki three weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, .... With no evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Daki, the German police let him go.
Posted by Mike Sylwester  2004-3-22 9:13:46 PM||   2004-3-22 9:13:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 The signal to noise ratio must be a very low number in a loose federation of countries that speak different languages and historically have fought each other in various wars throughout the centuries. Expectations don't seem to be as high for their intelligence groups. Had the bombing happened in the US, the press would be screaming for the heads of the CIA, NSA and FBI.
Posted by Super Hose  2004-3-22 11:48:45 PM||   2004-3-22 11:48:45 PM|| Front Page Top

19:14 CAG Hotshot
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