Thursday, June 16, 2011

The Terrorist Next Door

By Alan Caruba

The June 16 news from NBC was headlined “Possible Al-Qaeda Hit List Targets Specific Americans.”

The list included the names and photos of “U.S. officials and business leaders” and the call was to kill them in their homes, all the better to spread their stock-in-trade, terror. The individuals have been notified by the FBI. The list includes Wall Street firms, political leaders, think tank influentials, and contractors who do business with the military.

While the U.S. government is now using its drone fleet to whack al-Qaeda folk in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen these days, according to Catherine Herridge, a Fox News correspondent, al-Qaeda has morphed from being a top-down organization to a more generalized movement and these days it is busy recruiting American-born Muslims to continue the jihad.

In her new book, “The Next Wave: On the Hunt for Al Qaeda’s American Recruits”, Herridge spells out a chilling scenario. To understand the next phase of terror, it should be the next book on your summer reading list.

Herridge knows the terrorism scene courtesy of reporting on it for years and having an extraordinary number of contacts within the U.S. counterterrorism network that was put together after al Qaeda’s wake-up call on 9/11. The flaws in the system that existed before then were exposed and steps were taken to get better coordination among the FBI, CIA, NSA, and its other elements.

These days the National Counterterrorism Center must process a daily volume of information “between eight thousand and ten thousand reports.” The threat made “sharing data a matter of survival,” says Herridge. They include “at least forty threats and distinct plots.”

Perhaps the worst part of what an army of intelligence analysts determined was that the jihad and the terrorist’s mind set was that “it’s not a generational issue, it’s a forever issue.”

What too many Americans have yet to come to grips with is that the inherent message and duty of Islam is a never-ending war on “infidels”—and in particular the West—is jihad. While Christianity seeks to convert by the power of its message, Islam seeks to convert by virtue of its ability to apply terror to populations that resist it. It seeks out those who feel alienated from American and Western values, recruiting them in the greater jihad—war—to dominate whole nations and peoples.

It is the antithesis of its claim that it is “a religion of peace.”

As one old CIA hand put it, jihad is “not a personal struggle for someone’s soul, but (is) a global movement.” Its primary target these days is America and its success is increasingly the use of the Internet to spread its message.

Constantly learning from its mistakes and constantly evolving, it should come as no surprise that one of its leading figures these days is Anwar al-Awlaki, American born and bred, and currently said to be hiding out in Yemen. With the elimination of Osama bin Laden his mastery of the Internet and his insider’s knowledge of American culture has elevated him.

He has been a major recruiter and one of his most famous was Major Nidal Halik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter. If there is one thing that will get Americans killed it is the political correctness that permitted Major Hasan to remain in the Army despite clear, obvious indications that he was drifting into the jihadist’s orbit. His exchange of emails with al-Awlaki should have put him on a short list for interrogation and further action to sever him from military service.

Herridge rarely strays from straight reporting in her book, but it is also clear that she regards the Obama administration as a virtual facilitator of homeland terrorism, noting at one point that “It took the Obama administration nine weeks to publicly acknowledge the Fort Hood massacre as an act of terrorism.”

Her warning is clear. “In a growing number of cases, al Qaeda’s followers are just like us. They are educated here, sometimes born here. The radicalization process is compressed, An offbeat loner can reach out and become a dedicated killer in a matter of months.”

As one former weapons inspector put it, “Terrorism is like water. It takes the path of least resistance. You move one way and it moves another. It is a thinking enemy.”

It is inherent on everyone to be especially watchful and, sadly, to be less attached to traditional legal protections that prohibit law enforcement and counterterrorism personnel from infiltrating the many mosques throughout the nation until this cancer can be isolated and eradicated.

Americans have got to come to a fundamental conclusion and understanding that Islam is a religion of people who want to kill as many Americans as possible by way of destroying the nation and spreading this murderous cult worldwide.

One need only look at the way Muslim nations today are engaged in insurrections and conflicts that, as often as not, kill other Muslims. It is a very different “religion” than Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism or Hinduism.

And now it has a list of American leaders it specifically wants to kill before it gets to you.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

8 comments:

Rich Kozlovich said...

I keep hearing the term "radical Islam" is if Islam as outlined in the Koran can be anything else. Just because Muslims may choose not to act on the commands of their religious texts doesn't alter that fact. Jihad is an obligation for any practicer of Islam and that means destroying everyone else. Which includes Muslims that belong to different sects. The Sunnis and the Shiites have been killing each other for centuries. There can be no peace for those outside of Islam and there can be no peace within Islam. It is cannot be a religion of peace. Based on its practices and teachings it can only be categorized as a criminal organization masquerading as a religion.

TexasFred said...

Islam isn't even a religion, it's a SECT, an evil sect of perverts, child molesters and murderers..

Evil to it's very core, and becoming more-so every day that passes...

A Muslim *hit list* in MY neighborhood won't work, they stick out like a sore thumb, and Texans are generally prepared for most eventualities...

We enforce .45 caliber justice on those that attack us... Well, I do...

Will Harmon said...

What the Muslim terrorists can't appreciate and will never understand is the indestructability of the American fabric when it comes to liberty, freedom, love of country, and our way of life. We can fight among ourselves, but if foreigners take a punch they will have a nest of hornets swooping down on them. These cowards don't have any problem intimidating in 7th century rat-hole cultures because they are the only ones with weapons. So they can afford to feel tough there. They underestimate the fact that there are probably 100 million Americans with guns and if law enforcement and politicaly correct politicians won't deal with violence in our streets the People's militia will go packing with their sidearms and take care of it. Camel jockeys are not going to change our way of life any more than we are going to change theirs. The day they detonate a nuclear device on US soil they had better be prepared to have that big sandbox they call home turned into glass. And that will take care of the Muslim terrorist problem. But of course, we need leaders with big kahunas to do that. And right now we one that was castrated somewhere along the line.

Schism said...

"It is inherent on everyone to be especially watchful and, sadly, to be less attached to traditional legal protections that prohibit law enforcement and counterterrorism personnel from infiltrating the many mosques throughout the nation until this cancer can be isolated and eradicated."

"Traditional legal protections" such as the 4th Amendment? Or the 2nd, or the 5th, or the 1st?

Shame on you. We've already seen our lives made much more miserable over all, and much shorter in far too many cases, with the erosion of our rights and the increasingly rapid escalation of government actions agains "enemies of the people" with the "war on drugs", and now the "war on terror". Now you want us to thoughtfully approve of even further restrictions on ourselves so that the government can protect us better? Sorry, but they just don't seem capable of accomplishing that task.

It's just not the government's job to protect me from criminals. Nor is it generally possible for them to do so unless a cop is stationed at my shoulder 24/7, a measure I would vigorously object to as would the overwhelming majority of Americans.

You would probably argue that terrorists are a different matter. They're organized, they deal in deception and subterfuge, and they have learned how to subvert ordinary citizens with troubling ease. Sounds kind of like the old style Mafia to me.

It is not possible to pursue a war on terrorists. Terrorists have no country. They have no official army. No uniforms. No government. They have no overall structure that we can militarily defeat and force a final surrender from that will be binding on all terrorists everywhere.

Giving up a further portion of our American freedoms so that our government can do it's rather deficient best to secure a phantom victory over people who just enjoy killing others in the name of religious fervor is self defeating.

Government may, in some cases, help us protect ourselves. The final responsibility, fortunately or otherwise, lies with us as individuals, not some faceless, unaccountable bureaucrat in a government office we can't even locate.

Alan Caruba said...

@Schism: Unfortunately, as 9/11 demonstrated, terrorists use our legal system against us and, for the dead, there are few excuses to be made that we did everything we could.

In general, the Patriot Act has provided more means with which to deal with terrorists.

Ronbo said...

Whether or not the American Ruling Class, or even a majority of my fellow Americans want to believe it, 9/11 only marked the latest battle in a 1,400 plus year war between Islam and Western Civilization.

Before and after 9/11, we have tried appeasement with Islam. It doesn't work. We have tried limited war in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to install republican regimes that separate Mosque and State. It's not working. We have even attempted alliances with "moderate" Muslim nations. They have never worked in the long run.

What is next?

Clearly, The Third World War and Great Crusade that promises to take up where World War II left off - with an exchange of missile launched nuclear weapons.

I know like Cassandra my often accurate predictions of gloom and doom will be ignored by the most Americans...THEY ARE TOO TERRIBLE TO BE BELIEVED AND ACTED UPON...and I never feel pleased when events prove me right again and again.

Cheers, Ronbo - Cassandra

Glenn Elsden said...

Dear Alan Caruba

I’m from South Africa, and have been following your excellent articles with keen interest for the past 2 - 3 months. Although I’m not blessed with the exceptional writing talent you clearly possess, this particular posting, combined with a few others I’ve read, has recently inspired me to write an article entitled, Who Controls Global Terrorism?

I hope you don’t mind me sharing this link in the comment section of this post.

Take care, and keep on doing what you do best!

PS:
I've also linked your blog on my list - "Blogs of Interest"

Alan Caruba said...

@Tia: Thank you. I visited your blog and it is first-rate in all respects. Keep up the good work!
Alan C.