Sunday, December 23, 2007

What Goes Around, Comes Around

The following, excerpted from a release from Agence France-Presse and found in Gulf in the Media, demonstrates a few obvious truths usually ignored by supporters and appeasers of terrorism, such as
  • it's difficult to put the terrorism genie back in the bottle
  • the weapons you use on others are likely to be turned back on you
  • terrorists aren't the most reliable people, so appeasing them doesn't mean they won't kill you
Okay, so that's a bit redundant, but the lessons never seem to be learned.

The Arab states that were the driving force in modern terrorism as long as it was directed against Israel have repeatedly seen the terrorism weapon aimed back at them. The Saudis keep funding terrorists, directly and indirectly, but that hasn't kept terrorists from repeatedly attacking both religious targets (such as Mecca) and secular targets (such as meetings of OPEC ministers).

Egypt has a serious problem with the Muslim Brotherhood, which has repeatedly murdered tourists and assassinated one of its prime ministers.

Jordan found its very existence threatened by the PLO until it kicked out the PLO in Black September.

Black September brought the PLO into Lebanon, leading to the Lebanese civil war. The PLO's mini-terror-state made a shambles of Southern Lebanon until Israel forced it to flee.

Lebanon's ignoring Hezbollah's hegemony in its south led to tremendous destruction once again when Hezbollah launched a terror war against Israel in 2006.

One of the most interesting examples was the former Soviet Union, which trained terrorists when it thought they served its purposes, only to now suffer frequent terrorist attacks itself.

Even the United States has faced disastrous consequences of support for questionable "allies," with our support for the opponents of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan leading to the ascendancy of the Taliban and the creation of Al Qaeda.

Saudis bust Islamist ring planning attack during hajj: ministry

Security forces in Saudi Arabia, the target of Islamist attacks since 2003, arrested an Al-Qaeda linked group planning a "terrorist act" during this week's Muslim pilgrimage, the interior ministry said on Friday.

"The authorities have arrested a group which planned to carry out a terrorist act aimed at harming security and damaging the (hajj) pilgrimage," General Mansur al-Turqi, a ministry spokesman, told AFP.

The spokesman said the attack planned by a "deviant group", the Saudi term for militants linked to Al-Qaeda, did not however target Islam's holiest sites in Mecca or the pilgrims.

Earlier, the Dubai-based television Al-Arabiya said Saudi authorities arrested an Al-Qaeda linked group planning to carry out attacks during the hajj, quoting Saudi security officials.

Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said in early December that his forces had foiled "more than 180 terrorist operations" since a wave of bombings and shootings by the Saudi branch of Al-Qaeda broke out four years ago.

The conservative Muslim kingdom also said it arrested 208 suspected Al-Qaeda militants over the past few months plotting assassinations and an attack on a logistical oil facility.

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil producer and exporter, announced in February 2006 that it had foiled an attempt to blow up the world's largest oil processing plant, in Abqaiq in the Eastern Province.

The militants, who are followers of Saudi-born Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, espouse the ideology of "takfeer" -- branding other Muslims as infidels in order to legitimise violence against them.

The hajj, in which every Muslim is expected to take part at least once in a lifeterm if they have the means, has been hit by a series of disasters over the years, mostly caused by stampedes or fires.

There were no major incidents reported during this year's hajj.

However, in December 1979, 151 people were killed and 560 wounded after Saudi security forces stormed the Grand Mosque in Mecca to rescue pilgrims held hostage by Islamist militants for about two weeks.

And in July 1989, one person was killed and 16 wounded within the Grand Mosque sanctuary in a double attack blamed on 16 Kuwaiti Shiites who were executed later the same year.

Four hundred and two people were killed, including 275 Iranians, according to official Saudi figures, when security forces tried to break up an anti-US demonstration by Iranian pilgrims during the hajj in July 1987.

No comments: