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Terror Networks
Sickening Escalation in Al Qaeda War against US
2004-06-20
Saudi security forces appeared to act expeditiously when Friday night, June 18, hours after the decapitated body of the American engineer Paul Johnson was found in Riyadh, they killed his purported murderer, Abdulaziz al-Muqrin in a shoot-out in the capital. Not surprisingly, Al Qaeda quickly denied the death of the most prominent of their Saudi leaders. In a statement released over their affiliated Web sites, they accused the Saudis of lying.

In the execution of Paul Johnson, Osama bin Laden’s group took its savagery to an unprecedented extreme. After performing this atrocity, they published three horrendous photographs – one showing a terrorist holding up the severed head of his victim, the second displaying the knife he used and the third showing the head placed on the back of the dead man. The act was performed, according to the statement, “in the name of Fallujah Brigade of al Qaeda,” which instantly conjured up a previous outrage against Americans in Iraq.

This symbolic linkage of events is endemic to the Middle East and strategically significant. The disgust and horror voiced by the US president George W. Bush and vice president Dick Cheney were exactly what al Qaeda wanted and will encourage them in their belief that they can keep going.

The Saudis are certainly not stopping them. A single figure is enough to give the lie to the Saudi government’s oft-repeated claim that its security forces are truly cracking down on al Qaeda’s operations. DEBKAfile reveals that since the September 11 attacks in the United States, no more than 1,500 Saudis have been detained on their home turf, i.e. an average of 500 per year.

That the Islamist terrorists feel little restraint was demonstrated in the two strikes they carried out last month. For 12 to 18 hours, the terrorists breezed past roadblocks and guard units in the kingdom’s most sensitive oil centers - the Red Sea town of Yanbu on May 2 and the Gulf town of Khobar (adjacent to the key oil city of Dahran where National Guards special units protect the oil installations) on May 29. They were not challenged or stopped.

Osama bin Laden’s followers are getting away with far too much. Only this week, President Bush said he saw no reason to bar rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr’s entry into mainstream Iraq politics – despite his violent insurrection and his public murder of a fellow Shiite cleric. Forgotten was General Mark Kimmit’s declaration less than two months ago: “We’ll either capture him or kill him. It’s as simple as that.”

Neither is it lost on al Qaeda that, to this day, the Palestinian bombers who murdered three CIA agents in northern Gaza on October 15, 2003, walk free – even though US intelligence knows their identities and whereabouts. Israel appears to be taking a leaf out of Washington’s book. Gaza Strip terrorists never gave up all the remains of the six Israeli soldiers blown up in the Zeitun district of Gaza City on May 11. At the time, defense minister Shaul Mofaz and IDF chief of staff, Gen. Moshe Ayalon, vowed furiously never to rest until every single part was recovered. The winds bringing in the new disengagement plan appear to have blown the vows away.

But, according to DEBKAfile’s exclusive intelligence and counter-terror sources, the prime factor behind the spiraling savagery of al Qaeda’s overt war against the United States is the hidden climax reached in the last two weeks in an undercover showdown, which has brought the Americans some breakthroughs. The Islamist organizations chiefs in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia credited these breakthroughs with the penetration by US intelligence of some of their key cells.

In Afghanistan, US forces uncovered al Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in the southern and southeastern provinces of Zabul and Oruzgan. In a large battle last week at De Chopan, they managed to kill scores of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. In Pakistan, American agents foiled the hijack of a US airliner from Karachi airport. In Saudi Arabia, they hit on secret smuggling routes through which the terrorists imported weapons from Yemen. In raids on two Yemeni border villages, Fifa and Huba, they seized masses of ground-air missiles and explosives. On June 3, al Qaeda operatives and another weapons cache were rounded up in a raid on Haraj, a small town in the Hijaz province of western Saudi Arabia.

Al Qaeda’s supreme command struck back fast: one, they created bogus cells in all three countries to lead the American penetration agents and special forces operatives away from the real operational units. The speed of their response points to the availability of a large manpower pool and high organizational skills. Knowing where to plant the fake cells also betrays inside knowledge of the tactical workings of American intelligence bodies.

Two, they switched from Saudi to American targets in the kingdom. In ten days, al Qaeda terrorists killed three Americans in Riyadh - last week, they released a tape showing Jewish American Vinnel employee Robert Jacob being shot near his home and the killers approaching to fire at point blank range. Last Saturday, Kenneth Scroggs was tailed to his home and murdered. After Paul Johnson, Al Qaeda is unlikely to draw the line.
Posted by:Mark Espinola

#17  "Fred Man" is actually a nom-de-guerre for Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man, of the Texas Manns.

Or was it Austria? I forget. Possibly Australia.

Anyway, Steve (in his capacity as Atrox Maximus of the Army of Steve) sometimes wears a wolf skin, leading to unfounded charges of Lycanthropy from certain LLL sources and plants. The theory is particularly popular among cabbages, for example, according to a recent poll conducted by Gardner's Politix Weekly...
Posted by: mojo   2004-06-20 11:03:32 PM  

#16  Don't shitty snide remarks against the Sheriff hisownself deserve banning?

Give 'er the hook!
Posted by: .com   2004-06-20 6:28:09 PM  

#15  Dog Bites are you for health care for the pali people if its not faith based or delivered by Haliburton? What is your stance on Likud subzidized cruises for jaded Tanzim gentlemen? Are you aware that the one they call Fred man is a shape shifter?
Posted by: Junifer   2004-06-20 6:09:07 PM  

#14  Desperation speaks!

Rules:
1. Don't accept spin as truth.
2. Look for a factual basis, before accepting the statements of politicians.
3. Don't point the finger, because it makes others wonder what you are pointing away from.
4. If defending your beliefs causes desperation, then abandon said beliefs.
5. Before you try to be clever, remember the last time you attempted to match whits, and lost.
6. Ask yourselves why you write off Oil-Patch-George's enemies, but not the enemies of America whose asses he kisses.

Posted by: Dog Bites Trolls   2004-06-20 4:57:14 PM  

#13  hey DBT, your leaving many threads unanswered elsewhere on this blog, does you doctor prescribe ritalin, for you short attention span theatre performances? If not, please seek medical attention, or offer an alternative solution. Or buy a brain, or does your hell plan not cover it?
Posted by: Comment Top   2004-06-20 2:17:19 PM  

#12  Aw now you've done it. You've gone and talked to it like it's a not a halfwit spew generator, let it into your home, and now it feels at home.

It never offers an alternative, a plan, or anything else except spew. It comes here for therapy, not to contribute - for not once has it ever done so. It's another tough-talking, no-walking, lump of disinformation DUng.

Sigh. Don't we have enough disingenuous dysfunctional TurdTrolls, already? Puhleeze, get a dog, cat, baby duck, anaconda, or crocodile if you want a pet. Sheesh!
Posted by: .com   2004-06-20 1:37:27 PM  

#11  B:
You know, $120,000,000,000 would have bought a lot of real security, rather than the jeopardization that the creation of an Iraq power vacuum for Wahabis and Khomenis has engendered.

If you think that Bush-Powell Iraq will be a showcase for Middle East democracy, then you are a snake oil consumer. Now I know who sends money to those Nigerian scam artists.

$120,000,000,000! That will resonate by November.
Posted by: Dog Bites Trolls   2004-06-20 1:30:42 PM  

#10  Hmmm. Let's think: WMDs as cost effective; enemy as anti-humans; Hiroshima; Nagasaki; Mecca; Medina; Riyadh; Qom; Najaf; Karbala; Fallujah; Peshawar...

Last I heard, an actual poll revealed 67% Iraqi support (much higher in Shiite areas) for al-Sadr's Bisaji terrorists. And an informal poll revealed over 50% support for bin Laden in the Saud entity. And Bush-Powell won't write off these koranimals.

Smack your complacent FOX-heads, and think of the $120,000,000,000 wasted by Bush-Powell on the nation-building folly in Iraq, and think of nation-destruction. Hey, we'll still have the Kurds on-line to pick up the pieces. And less than half of Iraq territory has been explored for oil sources.

Bush-Powell kiss Taliban ass, again:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/FF18Ag02.html

Bush-Powell created both an Iraq power vacuum for the Wahabi-Khomenis, and an American power vacuum for the leftists.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FF18Ak01.html

Bush Blew It. He can go to hell.
Posted by: Dog Bites Trolls   2004-06-20 1:19:35 PM  

#9  Dog Bites Troll - ok..buty shouldn't your name be Dog Bites Off Nose To Spite
Face?
Posted by: B   2004-06-20 1:10:13 PM  

#8  loved it .com!

Dog's sentiments are understood in this post, but usually he just spouts anti-Bush crap, and doesn't seem to understand the complexities of world politics.
Posted by: ex-lib   2004-06-20 11:12:12 AM  

#7  Dog, lets see, its Sept 16 and you have two choices.
(1) WW2 solution. Tell the truth that Islam means Submission and that they started a war with the US. Start a draft to up the military numbers and declare war on America's Islamic Enemies (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya, PLO, Lebenon, Afghanistan, and forces inside of a dozen other countries. The war would be long, brutal, and honest. Realize the world would be against your war from day 1 but do what has to be done anyway.
(2) The WOT Option. Declare Islam a Religion Of Peace to allow the few moderate Islamic states enough cover to clean their own houses. Go after the worst offenders one after another hoping to scare the others into not fighting, and hoping to draw the real scum out of the moderate states into a place of your choosing to fight them (Iraq). Realize that many in the world will support you, or partially support your conflict in the early stages, and by the later stages it may not matter.

Given the two choices I think I would choose option (2) as Bush did. It allows Islamic regimes the chance to clean up (as Libya did) and costs less American lives. It also avoids the draft and allows flexibility that might not be available with Option (1).

Iran is the only difference. If Iran gets a nuke, it will be clear that Option 1 was the way to go and we blew it. Otherwise I'm willing to give the folks the benefit of the doubt for not escallating everything to 11.
Posted by: Yank   2004-06-20 9:29:19 AM  

#6  What's up with this nonsense:

Osama bin Laden’s group took its savagery to an unprecedented extreme . . . spiraling savagery . . .

Hijacking airplanes by cutting the throats of the flight crew, and flying them into office towers, killing three thousand people in one morning, isn't savage enough for you, DEBKA?

DBT, do you have any actual evidence for your Michael Moore/Al Gore talking points? (NB: for purpose of the previous sentence, the term "evidence" does not include Farenheit 911, whatreallyhappened.com, and anything published in the Arab News.)
Posted by: Mike   2004-06-20 8:49:43 AM  

#5  .com - excellent picture, I have now downloaded it and have put it along with my other WoT images.
Posted by: Tony (UK)   2004-06-20 6:41:07 AM  

#4  Ah you're outting yourself, I see. Good. You'll feel better for being honest.
Posted by: .com   2004-06-20 2:16:32 AM  

#3  Hey Dog. I feel your pain, bite my lip. But I don't follow your Saudi retirement plan. Those guys fear nothing as goes their retirement. So please be less off the back.

But I have always been on board with an aggressive attack on islam. Don't gve up on Bush. He's trying to fight this war without taking on all of islam. Thats a big deal. Think it through. Let the Prez do his thing. So far so good but nothing is perfect.

But, Dog, for once I'm with you, sort of, I have my own over the top ways about how to go about defeating our enemy! Seems to be working for the Israeli's too. But Bush is the closest thing we have to a Prez that is willing to go to war with the evil thing. So give a little as your ideas wont be in play, for now!
Posted by: Lucky   2004-06-20 1:47:44 AM  

#2  Mark:
Get ready to land on Mike Sylvester's crap-list, as a nominal "troll," for your supposed insolence in posting the following:

"Osama bin Laden’s followers are getting away with far too much. Only this week, President Bush said he saw no reason to bar rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr’s entry into mainstream Iraq politics – despite his violent insurrection and his public murder of a fellow Shiite cleric. Forgotten was General Mark Kimmit’s declaration less than two months ago: “We’ll either capture him or kill him. It’s as simple as that.”

I gave up on Bush the second he said "Islam is peace" on Sept. 16, 2001, and I began attacking him when slave-Powell pressured the Northern Alliance to surrender to a sham peace by armistice, in the suppressed Afghan-liberation. Bushies are attacking anyone who promotes a post-Bush' hardline agenda. Americans have yet to learn that you can only win a counter-terror war by targeting every Islamofascist on the face of the earth. And Bush-Powell won't do that, because it would threaten their Saudi retirement fund. Every time a Koranimal places a Road Side Bomb, with the complacency of the local savages, the 20 buildings nearest to the bomb site need to be demolished. The terror mosques need to be wiretapped and on any evidence of incitement, the entire congregation must to be napalmed. Any American Muslim who it is proven to legal certainty, has supported Islamofascist terror in any way, must be shot on sight.
Posted by: Dog Bites Trolls   2004-06-20 1:20:57 AM  

#1  Osama bin Laden’s followers are getting away with far too much. Only this week, President Bush said he saw no reason to bar rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr’s entry into mainstream Iraq politics – despite his violent insurrection and his public murder of a fellow Shiite cleric. Forgotten was General Mark Kimmit’s declaration less than two months ago: “We’ll either capture him or kill him. It’s as simple as that.”

And you folks are worried about Kerry's crack habit.
Posted by: Zenster   2004-06-20 12:50:11 AM  

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