Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Al Qaeda behind attacks in London and Egypt

Washington Post:

The back-to-back nature of the deadly attacks in Egypt and London, as well as similarities in the methods used, suggests that the al Qaeda leadership may have given the orders for both operations and is a clear sign that Osama bin Laden and his deputies remain in control of the network, according to interviews with counterterrorism analysts and government officials in Europe and the Middle East.

Investigators on Saturday said that they believed the details of the bombing plots in Egypt and Britain -- the deadliest terrorist strikes in each country's history -- were organized locally by groups working independently of each other. In Sharm el-Sheikh, where the death toll rose to 88 people, attention centered on an al Qaeda affiliate blamed for a similar attack last October at Taba, another Red Sea resort. In London, where 52 bystanders were killed in the subway and on a bus, police have identified three of the four presumed suicide bombers as British natives with suspected connections to Pakistani radicals.

But intelligence officials and terrorist experts said they suspect that bin Laden or his lieutenants may have sponsored both operations from afar, as well as other explosions that have killed hundreds of people in Spain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Morocco since 2002. The hallmarks in each case: multiple bombings aimed at unguarded, civilian targets that are designed to scare Westerners and rattle the economy.

The officials and analysts also said the recent attacks indicate that the nerve center of the original al Qaeda network remains alive and well, despite the fact that many leaders have been killed or captured since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings in the United States. Bin Laden may be in hiding, the officials and analysts said, and much is still unknown about the network. But they added that his organization remains fully capable of orchestrating attacks worldwide by recruiting local groups to do its bidding.

...

But intelligence officials and analysts from European and Arab countries say there is increasing evidence that several of the deadliest bombings against civilian targets in recent years can be traced back to suspected mid-level al Qaeda operatives acting on behalf of bin Laden and the network's leadership. In some cases, counterterrorism investigators have concluded that bin Laden or his emissaries set plans in motion to launch attacks and then left it up to local networks or cells to take care of the details.

These attacks do not suggest that al Qaeda is by any means winning. The attacks may be enough to defeat liberals and the NY Times, but they continue to be acts of impotent rage and not acts that will make anyone other than liberal apologists submit to the will of al Qaeda. Al Qaeda continues to be a very weak organization that has no ability to operate above the squad level for any period of time. Its leadership is unable to communicate directly and is unable to show its face. When bin Laden and Zawaheri can hold a public press briefing and answer questions from anyone in the room, they may at that time be climbing out of the very deep hole they are in.

What analyst for liberal organizations tend to do is convey significance to the fact of an attack rather than the consequences of an attack. For example, the consequences of the attacks in London has been the uncovering of another element of al Qaeda operations, that is now operating at substantially reduced capacity because of arrest and the self attriting of forces. While the real target in Egypt was economic, attacks on tourism in the past in Egypt have not been effective for the same reason many al Qaeda attacks are not effective. For terrorism to be an effective weapon it has to be sustained. Even teh somewhat sustained attacks in Iraq have not been effective in accomplishing the objectives of the enemy.

One lesson Egypt should take from the attacks is that not sending troops to Iraq has not bought it peace with the enemy. The enemy knows Egypt is on our side and has been assisting the US and UK with intelligence and interrigations. The most devastating response that Egypt could give to these attacks would be to increase it direct support of liberated Iraq by sending troops to help fight the Sunni insurgency.

Zarqawi continues to push his strategy of prevoking the shia into a genocidal war against the Sunnis in hopes that other Sunnis will come to their rescue. While some, such as the NY Times, speculate that a civil war is breaking out in Iraq along that lines, to date there is little evidence that the Shia have taken the bait. Because of their stoic reaction to Zarqawi's provocations, it is likely that when the Shia and Kurds do lose patience witht eh Sunni collaborators, Zarqawi will be disappointed again at the lack of sympathy for his group and the Sunni collaborators.

It is easy to send the NY Times and the liberals into retreat with terrorist attcks, but in the real world these attacks should be judged for what they are--acts of impotence.