Are you aware of the al Qaeda plot to assassinate President Bush that was uncovered in 2005? Did you know that jihad terrorists in the U.S. financed the 1993 World Trade Center bombing partially through the sale of counterfeit T-shirts? Did you know that a professor at the University of South Florida in the 1990s was one of the international leaders of the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad and that he used his university activities as a cover while he raised money, gained recruits and disseminated propaganda for the jihad group? Had you heard that in May 2003, an American citizen living in Ohio pled guilty to conducting surveillance of the Brooklyn Bridge and other potential targets for al Qaeda?
These were not isolated incidents. In fact, they are just a few of the known activities of a huge jihad network that still operates in the United States, but of which few Americans are aware. That lack of awareness, however, is not because the information is unavailable: Steven Emersons Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S. tears the cover off this American jihad network. It is a comprehensive summation of what is known about the activities of al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other jihad groups within the United States. Although the tone of this book is sober and straightforward throughout, the cumulative effect is startling: The extent to which these jihad groups have penetrated American society is likely to come as a surprise even to relatively informed readers.
Emerson, who has been tracking jihad terror activity in the U.S. for years (he is the producer of the riveting 1994 episode of PBSs Frontline titled Terrorists Among UsJihad in America, which is still essential viewing for all those concerned about the security of the United States), in his book lays out evidence that jihadists are pursuing their goal of Islamic supremacism in myriad ways in America today, including through advocacy groups, an array of disingenuous charities and foundations, corporate financing networks, and the halls of academia. He and the staffers of his Investigative Project on Terrorism explain how al Qaeda continues to operate on our soil even after 9/11, how its operational strategy has evolved since then, and the extent of its American network.
But al Qaeda, of course, is not the only jihad organization operating on American soil today. Emerson explores the activities of many of them, including their actions within American mosques, their operations through charitable organizations and through the Internet and their involvement in money-laundering activities that allow terror financing to continue virtually unimpeded.
At the same time, he chronicles how American Muslim advocacy groups in Washington have worked to impede law enforcement endeavors against these operations at virtually every stepraising questions about their own larger goals. And of course, these advocacy groups have benefited from friends in high places. Homegrown plotters, sleeper cells, intolerant and hateful imams, and their domestic apologists, Emerson explains, all seek to undermine the foundations of this country through a variety of means: rhetoric, fund-raising, and violence. Intricate webs of interconnected groups and organizations have been established to pursueand often to obfuscatethe zealots destructive objectives.
It is disquieting reading, but in Jihad Incorporated, Steven Emerson has provided a useful summary of jihad activity in the United States at this time. We may only hope that law enforcement officials around the country are studying this book diligently, absorbing its lessons and devising strategies to head off the further growth of the jihad network in America.
Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)" and "The Truth About Muhammad"
#1
We may only hope that law enforcement officials around the country are studying this book diligently (Emerson's book), absorbing its lessons and devising strategies to head off the further growth of the jihad network in America.
Law enforcement hasn't the time to read Mr. Emerson's book. Law enforcement hasn't the time to read the Koran, the Ahadith, the Sunnah. Law enforcement doesn't read RB, LGF, Jihad Watch et al.
Law enforcement hasn't the time (inclination ?) to know or learn of the enemy.
Since 9-11 Law enforcement's time is relegated to sensitivity training and interfaith dialogue seminars sponsored and conducted by CAIR and a dozen other muzzie oraganizations situated in the USA, some of which even the readers of Rantburg have never heard of.
We're pretty much on our own.
The circles I run in consist, in part, of good folk in law enforcement (state and federal). I've asked more than a dozen of these guys if they read RB, LGF, or Jihad Watch. Not only do they not read these sites, they've never heard of these sites. Mind you, this is more than five years post 9-11.
That doesn't speak well of what we're trying to do here. The effort to inform and educate must be re-doubled.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
01/16/2007 13:00 Comments ||
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In America, they lie for tactical reasons, stating over and over that military action against Iran is unlikely. However in Iran, out of ignorance, they reiterate that American military action against their country is impossible because the US is "unable" to do so!
We say and hope our analysis is wrong. A possible military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities is in the final stages. Unless a political miracle occurs that revives the halted dialog between Iran and the international community, Iran and its neighboring countries should not be surprised by a scenario that includes American military action.
There are a number of common illusions in the Arab and Muslim mind in general, illusions that on several occasions in the past have been tried and proven unsuccessful. It was proven that the Arabs confuse their hopes with reality, and between what the other wants and what we think they are planning for.
There is an illusion that Iran is a huge military state with decisive striking power. This would be true if Iran was to confront one of its neighbors, but the fact is that in any confrontation between America and Iran, Iran would be a tiny helpless state. It will suffer what the Arabs suffered in 1967 and what Iraq suffered when Saddam stubbornly rejected all peaceful solutions. America will be able to impose its conditions. This has nothing to do with love or hatred. Geographically and historically, Iran is closer to us than America, and the cultural and historical relations we have with Iran outweigh our ties with America. Rather it is the facts, reality that show that the balances of power tilt flagrantly in favor of the United States and the Western alliance, particularly the European one!
Another illusion is that America is "rolling in the Iraqi mud." I wish that the Arab world would not believe such a statement; Iraq is not another Vietnam, and America is able to conduct more than one war because of its huge political and technological capabilities.
Tehran needs to reconsider its political discourse. The clamor of hollow threats has not succeeded once in modern history. No one ever succeeded without using one's mind and knowing one's capabilities and acting accordingly, pursuant to the rule "God favors those who know their self worth".
Israel has a nuclear arsenal but no Israeli official dares to mention Israel's possessions of nuclear weapons; they even deny the existence of these weapons. In Tehran, they are still in the early stages of enrichment; yet we hear a language of threats, menace and stubbornness.
If only the Iranian leadership thinks of the interests of its peoples, seeks to understand today's complicated international political equations and realizes that big words do not change political facts and that seeking practical alternatives and solutions with the international community is more feasible and useful than the antiquated words that think that louder voices mean a stronger argument!
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Screw Iran. Bomb them back into the Stone Age. Make Iran, from the Caspian to the Straits of Hormuz, as lightless at night as is North Korea. Then maybe the mullahs will get the message.
Posted by: mac ||
01/16/2007 4:16 Comments ||
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#2
Another illusion is that America is "rolling in the Iraqi mud." I wish that the Arab world would not believe such a statement; Iraq is not another Vietnam, and America is able to conduct more than one war because of its huge political and technological capabilities.
Will someone tell the Democrats this?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/16/2007 5:36 Comments ||
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#3
The mullahs wont get the message, they'd love nothing better. They would thrive in a climate of fear, hardship and desperation.
#4
I heard something similar on a talk show recently. If the U.S. wanted to destroy the countries of Iran and North Korea they could launch a LIMITED nuclear strike at each and the outcome would be determined in minutes. It is also true that if the U.S. wanted to severely cripple the economies and infrastructures of both countries our Air Power could start the task at 6:00 am and be finished by lunch. But whom do you hear the loudest pronouncements of aggression? Not a direct quote but its pretty much the gist of it. I would add that there is no political will to perform either of the tasks listed above. While it might bring about rapid political change in each country, the bulk of the world would gasp if we shut the lights out in Iran to send them a message.
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.
