Clarke says al-Qaeda threat on rise
“The risk of a terrorist attack by radical Islamic extremists has grown in Canada and elsewhere because the United States and its Western allies failed to crush al-Qaeda completely during the war in Afghanistan, says Richard Clarke, the former top White House counterterrorism adviser whose dire warnings went unheeded before Sept. 11, 2001.”
Um, we wouldn’t have needed to crush al-Qaida and bin Laden in Afghanistan had they not been allies that we trained and funded to fight the Russians in that same country in the 80’s. Check Unholy War by John Cooley for the unsettling details.
This review, on Amazon, was written in 1999 - before 9/11.
“Cooley, an ABC correspondent who has spent many years in the Middle East, calls his book a “narration,” and indeed it reads more like a conversation than a traditional book. He focuses on the numerous riots, uprisings, and terrorist acts in the Arabic-speaking parts of the Middle East over the last two decades, which began when freedom fighters in Afghanistan returned to their home countries after the Afghan war. Cooley carries such ties even to the World Trade Center and Kenyan and Tanzanian embassy bombings. Since the CIA (and others) funded the fighters in Afghanistan, we are reaping a strange harvest for our efforts.”
From another review, also on Amazon:
To oppose the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan in 1979, the United States formed an extraordinary anti-Communist alliance with militant Islamic forces in South Asia. John Cooley describes the development of U.S. foreign policy and CIA covert activity in the 1980s, which facilitated the training and arming of almost a quarter of a million Islamic mercenaries drawn from around the world.
Cooley marshals a wealth of evidence to demonstrate the devastating consequences of this alliance between the U.S. government and radical Islam–from the assassination of Sadat, the destabilization of Algeria and Checnya and the emergence of the Taliban, to the bombings of the World Trade Center and the US embassies in Africa.
Cooley examines the crucial role of Pakistan’s military intelligence organization; uncovers China’s involvement and its aftermath; the extent of Saudi financial support; the role of “America’s most wanted man.” the guerrilla leader Osama bin Laden; the BCCI connection; and the CIA’s cynical promotion of drug traffic to the Golden Crescent.
Talk about short-sighted stupidity, talk about blowback… When, oh when, we will learn my enemies enemy is not always my friend - or even my ally. Or to take a long-term view that encompasses more than the next two weeks.
You may recall Clinton bombed a base of bin Laden’s in Afghanistan. That base, built by bin Laden’s world class construction company, was designed to withstand direct missile hits and was built to CIA specs, that’s right, CIA specs. This is among the illuminating details in the book.
Clarke is correct, the threat from al-Qaida is rising, yet what are we really doing to thwart it? Long term, the U.S. needs to win hearts and minds worldwide. If the world thought the US had their interests in mind and was willing to be a partner, then, in my opinion, al-Qaida would shrivel away.
But instead, the Big Penis, belligerent approach favored by the Bushies is backfiring, driving the undecided to the open arms of al-Qaida. I’ve no illusions here, if al-Qaida ever took power, about the first thing they’d do is kill the leftists (like me.)
al-Qaida is a smart, sophisticated outfit, thus smart, sophisticated tactics are needed to counter them. And that’s precisely what is not happening.
Instead, the dimbulb approach being used is - well, the Texas Lead Enema image says it all, doesn’t it? (The soldiers are Dubya and Pappy.)
