Return-Path: <sentto-279987-3232-1003760529-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com> Delivered-To: fc@all.net Received: from 204.181.12.215 [204.181.12.215] by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.7.4) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Mon, 22 Oct 2001 07:23:08 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 25751 invoked by uid 510); 22 Oct 2001 14:21:40 -0000 Received: from n20.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.70) by 204.181.12.215 with SMTP; 22 Oct 2001 14:21:40 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-3232-1003760529-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.1.224] by n20.groups.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 22 Oct 2001 14:21:59 -0000 X-Sender: fc@red.all.net X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_0_1); 22 Oct 2001 14:22:09 -0000 Received: (qmail 38442 invoked from network); 22 Oct 2001 14:22:08 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by 10.1.1.224 with QMQP; 22 Oct 2001 14:22:08 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO red.all.net) (65.0.156.78) by mta2 with SMTP; 22 Oct 2001 14:22:04 -0000 Received: (from fc@localhost) by red.all.net (8.11.2/8.11.2) id f9MEMLC04617 for iwar@onelist.com; Mon, 22 Oct 2001 07:22:21 -0700 Message-Id: <200110221422.f9MEMLC04617@red.all.net> To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List) Organization: I'm not allowed to say X-Mailer: don't even ask X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL3] From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net> X-Yahoo-Profile: fcallnet Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 07:22:20 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Subject: [iwar] [fc:Focus.-.West.faces.new.breed.of.enemy] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Monday October 22, 03:08 AM Focus - West faces new breed of enemy By Samia Nakhoul BEIRUT (Reuters) - The eyes of the world opened on September 11 to a new nightmare -- a modern, sophisticated enemy that differs from the deadly Muslim fundamentalist groups the West has recognised as "terrorists" over the past two decades. Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda (The Base) network is a confederation of like-minded religious zealots, an organisation with the resources and ruthless capacity to kill using any means -- including nuclear weapons if they can get them. But unlike other Islamists, who have had only national aims and drew members from the disenfranchised, the bin Laden network has given notice that it wants to defeat the entire Western civilisation it deems an enemy, with its own modern tools. "Some people in the network had the skill, the knowledge and the experience to do this sort of attack. They know how the modern world works, they grew up in it, they were educated in it," said George Joffe, a Middle East expert at Cambridge University. And, experts say, the group draws on bin Laden's significant financial resources and transnational ties to unite disparate militant movements into a coordinated global struggle. "What makes him unique is that he globalised terrorism, therefore he can use different individuals with different skills. This enables him to confront the world. All the other groups are local," analyst Magnus Ranstorp from St Andrews University in Scotland told Reuters. "It's like the privatisation of terror. He recruits from everywhere so he can tap into the vast reservoir of people to strike at his enemy," he added. The clandestine organisation targets middle class, educated and well-travelled students, as well as former Arab volunteers who fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. They recruit them, train them and test their dedication and commitment to pitiless killing by assigning them daring and risky tasks over a period of time to check their performance, blind faith and secrecy, experts say. The 44-year-old bin Laden, a Muslim who sees himself as waging a war sanctioned by God, imported fighters to Afghanistan with Washington's blessing in the 1980s; a decade later he started exporting them back to strike at what he perceived to be "the enemy of Islam." GLOBAL REACH Al-Qaeda, a network of Islamists formed by fighters resisting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, has mushroomed into dozens of cells around the globe. It comprises Egyptians, Saudis, Yemenis, Afghanis, Pakistanis and Algerians. Experts said bin Laden looks for individuals with certain psychological characteristics, including high intelligence and religious zeal to manipulate and influence them. A charismatic figure, skilled in propaganda and psychological warfare, he presses all the right buttons for those who feel oppressed by the United States. "He's like a virus that infects and multiplies and spreads randomly," Ranstorp said. His aim is to overthrow existing regimes in the Middle East and south and central Asia. His message is tailored to spark the Muslim conscience and mobilise the Muslim community, he said. He seeks to reform the Muslim world with his own vision of Islam, the Wahhabi creed associated with Saudi Arabia, where he was born into a wealthy family but which has now stripped him of his citizenship. Until Al-Qaeda was founded, all violent Islamist groups such as Egypt's Al-Jihad, the Gama'a Islamiya and Algeria's Armed Islamic Group (GIA) were fighting local battles aimed at installing a purist Islamic state. Bin Laden has taken them all under his wing. Other groups, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the occupied Palestinian territories and Hizbollah in Lebanon, have carried out suicide attacks against targets in Israel or Lebanon. They see themselves, and are largely seen locally, as resistance groups to Israeli occupation. Bin Laden and the anti-Soviet Afghan movement were pan-Islamic in their origin, and conceived as such by their backers -- Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United States -- who together armed and trained volunteers, including many Arabs. Once billed by the United States as cold warriors, they saw themselves as holy warriors. After their victory against the Red Army, al-Qaeda became autonomous and found reasons to turn its wrath against the West. The target, experts say, is Western intervention: U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, U.S. backing of Israel's occupation of Palestinian land, the U.S.-led sanctions imposed on Iraq. But despite his stated aims, bin Laden came to identify his enemy as an entire civilisation -- polarising "Muslim believers and (Western) infidels" in a videotaped message after last month's attack on the United States that killed nearly 6,000 people. RELIGIOUS ZEAL AND MODERN TOOLS Bin Laden and his Arab volunteers attribute their Afghan victory to a combination of religious zeal and advanced Western technology, a formula they see as key to Israel's success against the Arabs. They believe they can repeat the feat. "There is a lesson to learn from this for he who wishes to learn," bin Laden said a 1999 interview. "The Soviet Union entered Afghanistan in the last week of 1979, and with Allah's help their flag was folded a few years later and thrown in the trash, and there was nothing left to call the Soviet Union." But more than God's help was behind that victory -- it was the deadly U.S.-supplied Stinger anti-aircraft missiles that turned the tide of the war against Soviet soldiers. Bin Laden is also conscious of the power of the media, and television in particular, to spread his message and incite Muslims across the world to rise up. Just as the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution distributed audio tapes to rouse his followers, bin Laden has been similarly skilful in disseminating his views through videotapes he supplies to the Qatari-based international al-Jazeera television. The man, who shook the world with apocalyptic images of the U.S. attacks, also raised the prospect of future attacks with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Asked in a 1999 interview if he was acquiring such weapons, he said: "If I seek to acquire these weapons, I am carrying out a duty." Many may wonder at his ability to convince others that they share the obligation of holy struggle, but bin Laden has made it clear that he believes the fight is a matter of religious duty. "We should fully understand our religion. Fighting is part of our religion and our Sharia (religious law). Those who love God and his Prophet and this religion cannot deny that. Whoever denies even a minor tenet of our religion commits the gravest sin in Islam," bin Laden once summed it up. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get your FREE VeriSign guide to security solutions for your web site: encrypting transactions, securing intranets, and more! http://us.click.yahoo.com/UnN2wB/m5_CAA/yigFAA/kgFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ------------------ http://all.net/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-12-31 20:59:56 PST