Terrorists Don't Need States

[Mira~]

I asked an American official closely involved with counterterrorism about state sponsorship. He replied, "Well, all that's left is Iran and to a lesser extent Syria, and it's mostly directed against Israel. States have been getting out of the terror business since the late 1980s. We have kept many governments on the list of state sponsors for political reasons. The reality is that the terror we face is mostly unconnected to states." Today's terrorists are harbored in countries like Spain and Germany—entirely unintentionally. They draw on support not from states but private individuals—Saudi millionaires, Egyptian radicals, Yemenite preachers. Afghanistan housed Al Qaeda, and thus it was crucial to attack the country. But that was less a case of a state's sponsoring a terror group and more one of a terror group's sponsoring a state. Consider the situation today. Al Qaeda has lost its base in Afghanistan, two thirds of its leaders have been captured or killed, its funds are being frozen. And yet terror attacks mount from Indonesia to Casablanca to Spain. "These attacks are not being directed by Al Qaeda. They are being inspired by it," the official told me. "I'm not even sure it makes sense to speak of Al Qaeda because it conveys the image of a single, if decentralized, group. In fact, these are all different, local groups that have in common only ideology and enemies." This is the new face of terror: dozens of local groups across the world connected by a global ideology. Next week I will explain how best to tackle this threat. But first we need to see it for what it is."

http://www.fareedzakaria.com/articles/newsweek/040504.html

[Mediocrates]

But most of those so called private parties are the state. The KSA is the personal property of the al Aziz bin Saud clan and whether Prince #34 paying off terrorists is sanctioned by Princes 1 through 33 is rather besides the point. These states by their very nature diffuse policy making and control just as autarkic governments and benign dictatorships pass off the dirty work to "The Party" typically the country's single party and the only one which has ever existed.

"State sponsored" has never been more than a lack of plausible deniability. Today's modern terrorist state, like North Korea or Palestine or Pakistan simply palm off their state support to a vague body of intelligence serivices and 'rebel elements beyond our control.' It's the backwaters and states not so sophisticated or, frankly not that interested in deniability that don't pretend to cover themselves this way. Syria and Iran for example don't see an upside in reorganizing their terrorist services because our former allies in the EU want to deal with them openly anyway. It serves no purpose to deny that which no one cares about. The Libyans, after a decade of not being made the leading Arab terrorist state and savior of the region simply gave up on Khaddaffy's dream of being the new regional Arab leader, turned his back on the Arab league and reinvented himself as a Pan African leader instead. With a tiny population and great wealth he is in a better position to be a continental leader of the Africans than a terrorist leader of the Arabs.

Does anyone doubt that the Moroccan' secret service has 'insurgents' on the payroll in Spain for example? Does anyone doubt that Kosovo is a launchpad for covert operations from Islamic states?

[Mira~]

Good response, Medio.

[David_in_NYC]

They can also do it China/EU/UN-style, e.g., funding terror through proxy states.

[sokol2002]

Terrorist cells are now all over Europe and Asia. The terrorist chooses countries with a poor Police intelligence and legal systems that protect them from extradition. If Bin Laden moved to Norway he would never be extradited to the US.

In Norway several different terrorist groups are working and funding their terrorist activities. Norway has also a liberal immigration and refuge laws. Some terrorist even gets financial aid from the Norwegian government. Others terrorist groups finance their activities with drug trade and human trafficking. Al Aqsa even arrange fundraising events in the Muslim communities in Norway, funds earmarked for suicide attacks against Israel.

The terrorist group LTTE receive military training by the Norwegian Army. They receive electronic equipment from the Norwegian Government and Intelligence reports from Norwegian generals in order to smuggle weapons to Sri Lanka. Listen to the phone taps on this web page were a Norwegian general are coaching the terrorist leader Prabarkan and the Norwegian ambassador talking to the LTTE giving them several tons of electronic equipment.

www.svik.org/ltte.htm

I think the war against terror will NEVER be won, if not the USA cracks down on terrorist safe havens as Norway.

[Kev]

Terrorist cells are now all over Europe and Asia. The terrorist chooses countries with legal systems that protect them from extradition. If Bin Laden moved to Norway he would never be extradited to the US.


It was the same here in Canada, although there have been incidents here in the past year where suspected terrorists were re-routed on their Mid East travels to Syria and then tortured.

Some have suggested that Canadian officials were just allowing American CIA to do their dirty work for them.