Counter-Terrorism - Kinder And Gentler Sucks

One subject that constantly comes up in terrorist communications (and their Internet message boards) is the need to avoid civilian casualties. The impact of this can be seen in Mali, where Islamic terror groups (including al Qaeda) control most of the sparsely populated (and largely desert) north. Many of the locals want no part of Sharia (Islamic) law and strict lifestyle rules. But instead of killing those who resist (which is still done in places like Somalia and Pakistan) the Islamic radicals fire their guns into the air to break up demonstrations against Islamic rule. If that doesn't work the suspected anti-al Qaeda leaders are rounded up and whipped. But the resistance continues and this worries fans of Islamic conservatism. Even in Saudi Arabia, where strict lifestyle (but not as strict as al Qaeda) rules have been enforced for decades. Popular resistance to this continues and it grows stronger. The message is that what Islamic radicals are selling has a very short shelf life and that most Moslems don't want it after they have sampled it.

Going back to mass murder is not seen as an option. This belief is based on the harsh experience in Iraq. Al Qaeda was enraged when the U.S. and Britain invaded Iraq in 2003. By the end of that year the Sunni Arabs were removed from power and the coalition declared that democracy, and majority rule, would prevail. Democracy was anathema to the Iraqi Sunni Arabs, who, as only 20 percent of the population, feared retribution from the majority (Kurds and Shia Arabs). In addition, there was the money angle. The Sunni Arabs had been keeping a disproportionate share of the oil wealth for themselves and had been doing so for decades. In order to avoid poverty and persecution, the Sunni Arabs began a terror campaign against the coalition (mainly U.S. and British) troops. In early 2004, they allied themselves with al Qaeda and Islamic terrorists in general. Al Qaeda saw the invasion of Iraq as an attack on their heartland and an opportunity to defeat the United States and the West in general.

The war in Iraq did serious damage to al Qaeda. This was because of the many Moslems killed as a side effect of attacks on infidel (non-Moslem) troops, Iraqi security forces, and non-Sunnis. Al Qaeda played down the impact of this, calling the Moslem victims "involuntary martyrs." But that's a minority opinion. Most Moslems, and many other Islamic terrorists, see this as a surefire way to turn the Moslem population against the Islamic radicals. That's what happened earlier in Algeria, Afghanistan, Egypt, and many other places. It really has nothing to do with religion. The phenomenon hits non-Islamic terrorists as well (like the Irish IRA and the Basque ETA).

The senior al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan soon noted the problem in Iraq and tried to convince the "Al Qaeda In Iraq" leadership to cool it. That didn't work. As early as 2004, some Sunni Arabs were turning on al Qaeda because of the "involuntary martyrs" problem. The many dead Shia Arab civilians led to a major terror campaign by the Shia majority. They controlled the government, had the Americans covering their backs, and soon half the Sunni Arab population were refugees.

Meanwhile, the "Al Qaeda In Iraq" leadership was out of control. Most of these guys were really out there, at least in terms of fanaticism and extremism. This led to another fatal error. They declared the establishment of the "Islamic State of Iraq" in late 2006. This was an act of bravado, touted as the first step in the re-establishment of the caliphate (a global Islamic state, ruled over by God's representative on earth, the caliph). The caliphate has been a fiction for over a thousand years. Early on the Islamic world was split by ethnic and national differences, and the first caliphate fell apart after a few centuries. Various rulers have claimed the title over the centuries but since 1924, when the Turks gave it up (after four centuries), no one of any stature has stepped up and assumed the role. So when al Qaeda "elected" a nobody as the emir of the "Islamic State of Iraq", and talked about this being the foundation of the new caliphate, even many pro-al Qaeda Moslems were aghast.

When al Qaeda could not, in 2007, exercise any real control over the parts of Iraq they claimed as part of the new Islamic State, it was the last straw. The key supporters, battered by increasingly effective American and Iraqi attacks, dropped their support for al Qaeda, and the terrorist organization got stomped to bits by the "surge offensive" a year later. The final insult was delivered by the former Iraqi Sunni Arab allies, who quickly switched sides, and sometimes even worked with the Americans (more so than the Shia dominated Iraqi security forces), to hunt down and kill al Qaeda operators.

By 2007, opinion polls in Moslem countries showed approval and support of al Qaeda plunging, in some cases into single digits. After the invasion of Iraq, al Qaeda managed to take itself from hero to zero in less than four years. Al Qaeda is still trying to recover and the kinder and gentler approach does not seem to be working.

Islam - The peaceful religion ! - Mali Islamists destroy tombs at ancient Timbuktu mosque

The Islamists controlling northern Mali destroyed two tombs at the ancient Djingareyber mud mosque today in Timbuktu, an endangered World Heritage site.

"Currently the Islamists are busy destroying two tombs of Timbuktu's great Djingareyber mosque. They are shooting in the air to chase away the crowd, to scare them," one witness said.

"The two mausolea are adjacent to the western wall of the great mosque and the Islamists have hoes, chisels, they are hitting the mausolea which are made out of packed earth," said a source close to the mosque's imam.

"They say they will destroy everything." Another witness reported that the Islamists had cried "Allahu Akbar" (God Is Great) as they hammered away at the mosque, one of the most important in Timbuktu.

He added that the Islamists had blocked off two main roads leading to the mosque, which was one of the fabled city's main tourist attractions before the region became a no-go area for Westerners.

The same witness reported that the Islamists had asked a television crew from the Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera to film their actions.

The fighters from the Islamist group Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith) began their destruction of the city's cultural treasures on July 1, shortly after UNESCO placed them on a list of endangered World Heritage sites.

Declaring the ancient Muslim shrines "haram", or forbidden in Islam, Ansar Dine set about destroying seven of Timbuktu's 16 mausolea of ancient Muslim saints.

They also destroyed the sacred door of the 15th-century Sidi Yahya mosque.

Along with Sidi Yahya, Djingareyber and the Sankore mosque bear witness to Timbuktu's golden age as an intellectual and spiritual capital which was crucial in the spread of Islam throughout Africa.

According to the UNESCO website, the Djingareyber mosque -- the oldest of the three -- was built by the sultan Kankan Moussa after his return in 1325 from a pilgrimage to Mecca. All have been restored several times.

Ansar Dine had paused their campaign of destruction for about a week, but said they would continue destroying all the shrines "without exception" amid an outpouring of grief and outrage both at home and abroad.

On Tuesday a source in Ansar Dine told AFP that "from now on, as soon as foreigners speak of Timbuktu" they would attack anything referred to as a World Heritage site.

"There is no world heritage, it doesn't exist. The infidels must not get involved in our business," said a Tunisian jihadist who gave his name only as Ahmed and said he was part of Ansar Dine's "media committee." "We will destroy everything, even if the mausolea are inside the mosques, and afterwards we will destroy the mausolea in the region of Timbuktu," he said.

More ancient tombs are situated in the towns of Araouane and Gassra-Cheick in the greater Timbuktu region.

A March 22 coup in Mali eased the way for Tuareg separatist rebels to seize a vast area in the north that they consider their homeland.

However, the previously unknown Ansar Dine group seized the upper hand while fighting on their flanks. Openly allied with the north African group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, they have since pushed the Tuareg rebels from all positions of power.

The international community fears the desert region, which is larger than France, will become a new haven for terrorist activity, and the Islamists have threatened any country that joins a possible military intervention force in Mali.

West African mediators have ordered Mali's embattled interim government to form a unity government by July 31 that will be better able to deal with the northern occupation.

Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, and Al-Shabaab ‘merge’

Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and al-Shabaab, labeled as Africa’s most violent militant groups, are coordinating and synchronizing their efforts as they share funds and swap explosives, according to a US commander

 Soldiers of African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) advance through the town of Afgoye to the west Mogadishu in this photo.

Three of Africa’s largest extremist groups are sharing funds and swapping explosives in what could signal a dangerous escalation of security threats on the continent, the commander of the U.S. military’s Africa Command said June 25.

Gen. Carter Ham said there were indications that Boko Haram, al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), groups that he labeled as the continent’s most violent, are sharing money and explosive materials while training fighters together.

“Each of those three organizations is by itself a dangerous and worrisome threat,” Ham said at an African Center for Strategic Studies seminar for senior military and civilian officials from Africa, the United States and Europe, Reuters reported.

“What really concerns me are the indications that the three organizations are seeking to coordinate and synchronize their efforts,” Ham said. “That is a real problem for us and for African security in general.”

The United States classified three of the alleged leaders of Boko Haram, based in remote northeast Nigeria, as “foreign terrorists,” on June 20. But it declined to blacklist the entire organization to avoid elevating the group’s profile internationally.

Al-Shabaab is active in war-ravaged Somalia and has been blamed for attacks in Kenya. Last year it claimed responsibility for the death of Somali Interior Minister Abdi Shakur Sheikh Hassan. AQIM, an affiliate of al-Qaeda based in North Africa, is mainly a criminal organization operating in the Sahel region. It kidnaps westerners for ransom and aids Africa’s drug trade, according to intelligence officials.

‘West African Afghanistan’

U.S. and regional officials fear that a power vacuum in northern Mali following a military coup in March may open an expanded area of operations for militants. Some Western diplomats talk of the country becoming a “West African Afghanistan.”

Ham said AQIM was now operating “essentially unconstrained” throughout a large portion of northern Mali, where Islamists have imposed a harsh version of Shariah law. The group is a threat not only to the countries in the region, but also has “a desire and an intent to attack Americans as well. So that becomes a real problem,” Ham said.

Emphasizing that the U.S. military played mainly a supporting role in Africa, Ham said the United States was providing intelligence and logistical help in the hunt for Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, whose Lord’s Resistance Army is accused of abducting children to use as fighters and hacking off limbs of civilians.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague indicted Kony for crimes against humanity in 2005, and his case hit the headlines in March when a video titled “Kony 2012,” put out by a U.S. activist group and calling for his arrest, went viral across the Internet.