Since September 11 Britain has been warned of the 'inevitability' of catastrophic terrorist attack. But has the danger been exaggerated? A major new TV documentary claims that the perceived threat is a politically driven fantasy - and al-Qaida a dark illusion. Andy Beckett reports Since the attacks on the United States in September 2001, there have been more than a thousand references in British national newspapers, working out at almost one every single day, to the phrase "dirty bomb". There have been articles about how such a device can use ordinary explosives to spread lethal radiation; about how London would be evacuated in the event of such a detonation; about the Home Secretary David Blunkett's statement on terrorism in November 2002 that specifically raised the possibility of a dirty bomb being planted in Britain; and about the arrests of several groups of people, the latest only last month, for allegedly plotting exactly that.
Starting next Wednesday, BBC2 is to broadcast a three-part documentary series that will add further to what could be called the dirty bomb genre. But, as its title suggests, The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear takes a different view of the weapon's potential. "I don't think it would kill anybody," says Dr Theodore Rockwell, an authority on radiation, in an interview for the series. "You'll have trouble finding a serious report that would claim otherwise." The American department of energy, Rockwell continues, has simulated a dirty bomb explosion, "and they calculated that the most exposed individual would get a fairly high dose [of radiation], not life-threatening." And even this minor threat is open to question. The test assumed that no one fled the explosion for one year.
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Posted by: tipper ||
10/16/2004 6:12:10 AM ||
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Albeit the world thinks Machiavel is dead
Yet was his soul but flown beyond the alps.
And now the Guisse is dead, is come from France
To view this land and frolic with his friends ...
#3
We, the people living today, will never know the whole and complete history of these times. How strong is the Al Qaida organization and does it control and coordinate the each and every one of the Ismalist groups. Probably not but even the best intelligence available cannot say what is fact and what is misimformation deliberate or otherwise. The best stance in my mind is to prepare for what is imaginable without throwing the economy into depression. We will never be perfectly safe, but we must take reasonable precaution. Is the course we are on the best method? Maybe not, but we have to go with what we know and can do.
Posted by: Old Fogey ||
10/16/2004 14:06 Comments ||
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#4
In other words; Hope for the best...but prepare for the worst.
October 15, 2004: The war on terror is running into some strange problems. In the Sahel (the semi desert region between the Sahara desert and the jungles of Central Africa), there have been centuries of banditry and rebellion (the two activities often get mixed up.) Now Islamic radicalism has been added to the mix. Young, poor, armed tribesmen are the primary recruits for all forms of organized violence. Now, as American troops train local soldiers to be more effective at patrolling their arid borders, they are finding that the "enemy" is elusive, unpredictable, and not your text book terrorist. Al Qaeda has discovered this as well, and has also found that local gunslingers always have their loyalty up for sale. If the Americans come in offering more money, the al Qaeda members are toast. As a result, bucks, not bullets, has proved to be the most effective weapon along the Sahel.
Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, public opinion is becoming more tolerant of Islamic terrorists, mainly because there have been no terrorist attacks for months, and more critical of American anti-terror efforts. In the last year, Saudi police have killed or arrested ten of their "26 most wanted" Islamic terrorists. The Islamic terrorist organizations in Saudi Arabia are on the the run. But in the past 17 months, Islamic terrorism in Saudi Arabia has left over a hundred dead (mostly foreigners) and over 200 wounded. The Saudis like to think that, if the U.S. had not gone into Iraq, there would have been no outbreak of terrorism in Saudi Arabia. Most Saudis are willing to tolerate Islamic terrorism as long as it is not practiced in Saudi Arabia. For decades, this has been the attitude in Europe as well, and American operations in Iraq are criticized for "stirring things up." Many Saudis, Europeans, and even Americans, see Islamic terrorism as just one of those things, nothing to get too agitated about. Historically, this is correct. But the 911 attacks crossed the line for many people. Moreover, the ability, and eagerness of, terrorist groups to obtain weapons of mass destruction, has raised the ante. So the world is divided into those who want to treat Islamic terrorism as a police issue, and those that want to root out the support for the terrorists, and reduce the possibility of spectacular attacks using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Each camp considers the other out of touch, and there is little possibility of a meeting of the minds. Sort of like religion; you take a lot of it on faith.
Posted by: ed ||
10/16/2004 8:03:09 AM ||
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#1
The major centers mentioned here are of the opinion that if they just watch the terrorists then they will play by the established rules.
A watched pot never boils, right?
This watched pot was well on its way to exploding.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
10/16/2004 9:15 Comments ||
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We tend to forget that the classic "evil empires" of World War II Germany and Japan, and Stalin's Soviet Union, were propped up by the enthusiastic support of millions of people. The same thing is happening with al Qaeda and Islamic terrorism. A truly horrendous evil has seized the imaginations of millions of Moslems. They willingly and energetically support the use of murder and terror against the "infidel" (non-Moslem.) This is a very ugly story, with a lot of very ugly details, and that's probably why it doesn't get covered much.
The Internet has made it possible to see more of this, because Islamic radicals have found the Internet a cheap way to reach supporters who can either provide cash, or volunteers for terrorist activities. While more young Moslem men use the Internet to view porn than to seek out terrorist web sites, there are enough terrorism enthusiasts out there to keep the terrorism sites jumping. But these sites (which can be found via a Google search for jihad and "al Qaeda") make it clear how dark the dark side it. While many of the sites are in Arabic, they contain lots of illustrations that make it very clear what these people are all about.
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Posted by: ed ||
10/16/2004 7:59:26 AM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
