You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
International
Study: 9/11-Style Attack on U.S. Likely
2003-08-18
Another Sept. 11-style terrorism attack is ``highly likely’’ in the United States, which ranks fourth in an index assessing the risk to 186 countries, a research company said Sunday. The London-based World Markets Research Center ranked Colombia, Israel, Pakistan, the United States and the Philippines, in descending order, as the five countries most likely to be targeted in a terrorist attack in the next year, said Guy Dunn, author of the company’s World Terrorism Index.
This is the kind of crap that gets a big spread on Al-Guardian? Fred, Steve, PD and Zhang could have done this for free.

Prob'ly could have done it better, too. The only reason the U.S. is on the list at all is because of the Islamists trying to swarm us — virtually all American terrorism, with the exception of nutz like McVeigh, is imported. Even with the prospect of the turbans bringing a little of the Joy of Islam our way, I'd still put Algeria and Yemen ahead of us on the list, assuming it's based on probable body count. I might possibly tie us with Lebanon (indigenous terrorism in the person of Hezbollah, and imported gunnies, too — see Ein el-Hellhole) and India (ditto, see Kashmir and Gujarat). And let us not forget Indonesia, where the body count is already fairly hefty; if all the Bad Guys aren't in stir already, we can expect to see more booms and shoot-em-ups there, even discounting the fighting against GAM. Kenya's also a good candidate for high on the list; they're next door to Somalia, with a gooey-soft border, and their police are incompetent enough to make booming large numbers of people something of a romp. And Soddy Arabia, of course. If they aren't serious about their crackdown the whole country's gonna become Terror Central — like Karachi, only with fan belts and dish towels instead of turbans; and if they are serious about their crackdown, then things are going to get even more physical in the coming year.

The index, to be published Monday, assesses the risk of terrorism to the countries and their interests abroad, he said. The country least likely to be attacked by terrorists is North Korea, Dunn said.
However, in the companion study "Righteous Retribution" published on a small web site based in Viriginia, North Korea was in the top five along with Saddam, Cuba, Iran and Berkeley.
The assessments used five criteria: motivation of terrorists, the presence of terror groups, the scale and frequency of past attacks, efficacy of the groups in carrying out attacks and how many attacks were thwarted by the country. The categories also were weighted differently. For example, 40 percent was given to motivation and 10 percent to prevention.
Even they don’t respect the Department for Homeland Security.
Too bad they don't respect the Feds. With the (possible) exception of the anthrax follow-up to 9-11, there hasn't been a successful large-scale attack within the U.S.A.
``Another Sept. 11-style terrorist attack in the United States is highly likely,’’ the report states. ``Networks of militant Islamist groups are less extensive in the U.S. than they are in Western Europe, but U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan and Iraq has exacerbated anti-U.S. sentiment.’’
Yasss, the vaunted Arab Street will rise up any day now and bite us.
But first they've got to come here...
In terms of motivation, Dunn said, ``The United States, as a global superpower, is considered a legitimate, high-profile target.’’ But in terms of the presence of terrorist cells, the United States has relatively few, ``although it is probably the most open society in the world,’’ he said. Terrorists also consider American interests in other countries soft legitimate political targets, he said.
What an outstanding command of the obvious. Guy must have trained at the BBC.
Dunn said the United Kingdom, tied at 10th place with Sri Lanka, is a target partly because of its close relationship with the United States; its key roles in wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and terrorism; and the presence of sophisticated militant networks. But Britain also ``probably has the strongest counterterrorism capabilities in the world’’ because of years of fighting the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland, he said. The company, specializing in country risk, has hundreds of clients in 45 nations. Approximately 80 percent are multinational companies and banks, Dunn said. The remaining 20 percent are mostly governments, but also universities and charities. They include foreign ministries, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Anybody know how to bid those contracts? We could grab some easy cash. I can see the possibility of supporting this website for years performing a vital public service...
Terrorism has moved from being a peripheral threat before Sept. 11, 2001, to being a key risk to business, and no longer is isolated in the targeted countries, Dunn said. In a client survey, 72 percent said they considered terrorism when making international location decisions, he said. ``What changed with 9-11 was that the threat was internationalized. .... All countries were at some risk. In essence terrorism has become a key risk to business. Companies have to take a much more specific interest in terrorism,’’ Dunn said.
"And they can’t do that unless they hire ... us!! And pay us big money. Then will tell them that North Korea is a great place to invest because it’s at the bottom of our terrorism index. Ain’t we smart?
Posted by:Steve White

#6  Gee, thanks for the tip. We never would've known.
Posted by: tu3031   2003-8-18 9:38:33 PM  

#5  Exactly, snellenr. "Talk is cheap" applies to prognostication as much as anything else.
Posted by: mojo   2003-8-18 2:24:58 PM  

#4  "Terrorists will attack you" is a prediction worthy of Jeanne Dixon -- it's like getting a fortune cookie that says "Soon you will be asked for money".

When one of these "analysts" predicts that "Terrorists will attack downtown Houston on 11/15/03 at 9am", they'll get my full attention.
Posted by: snellenr   2003-8-18 11:37:42 AM  

#3  The London-based World Markets Research Center ranked Colombia, Israel, Pakistan, the United States and the Philippines, in descending order, as the five countries most likely to be targeted in a terrorist attack in the next year, said Guy Dunn, author of the company’s World Terrorism Index.

The next time you see the words "analyst" or "analysis" thrown around in the big media, understand that "analysts" are just schmos like the rest of us, except some of them get taller pedestals from which to shout out their pet theories. Many of these ill-conceived theories would have never have seen the light of day if "analysts'" paychecks were docked for every inaccurate prediction. Basically, he's just flailing around for something that will make headlines.

Terror sponsors are on notice - the fire next time. This is why we're not getting attacked - the money is drying up because they know that they could be in the cross-hairs if anything of the magnitude of 9/11 happens again. And this time, all options may truly be open, with all that the phrase entails.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2003-8-18 10:08:28 AM  

#2  
Terrorism has moved from being a peripheral threat before Sept. 11, 2001...

Masterful rhetoric. Makes one think reading that line that anti-terrorism is a passing fad and it will too pass with time.

The fact is that terrorism has been a threat against the USA for a long long time, but W's predecessor was getting head jobs while bin Laden was plotting 911 amoungst other mayhem.

I'd hire these folks... to clean my machine shop's bathroom... closely supervised.
Posted by: badanov   2003-8-18 7:45:28 AM  

#1  As the military action in Afghanistan continues, the resolve of would-be terrorists will have been strengthened further.

This is part of an essay that one of World Markets Research Center's "analysts" pulled out of a deep dark cavern, right after 9/11. And where might that cavern have been located? (Hint: he uses it for another bodily function on a daily basis). The "research center's" whole premise appears to be that the most effective response to terrorism is appeasement and headlong retreat. With "analysis" like this, it's pretty clear that the "research center" is a non-profit organization, probably funded by Arabs and other enemies of the US.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2003-8-18 1:02:48 AM  

00:00