Hamas: Attack Israel, Iraq not Saudi Arabia

[drdon326]

Hamas: Attack Israel, Iraq not Saudi Arabia

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1068974827769

Khaled Mashaal, head of the Hamas' bureau in Damascus, denounced the perpetrators of last week's deadly Riyadh suicide bombings and urged attacks on Israel and the US forces instead.

The Nov. 8 al-Qaida-linked attack on a residential compound in the Saudi capital killed 17 people and injured scores more. The attack, in which most of the victims were either Arabs or Muslims, angered many throughout the Middle East and was seen as a direct strike on the U.S.-allied Saudi royal family.

During a speech in the Lebanese capital Beirut, Mashaal urged Arab and Islamic militant groups "to stop tampering with our internal peace and security. This is not the arena for military confrontation."

"Whoever wants to fight, there are two arenas (and) they can choose one of them," Mashaal said in reference to US-occupied Iraq and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

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[Darranar]

1. Don't kill innocent Arabs, just kill innocent Israelis...

typical Hamas.

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Grotesque

According to literary critic Jan Kott, the word grotesque denotes horror mixed with humor. A dispute like this among terrorist organizations provides a good example. The big boy is misbehaving because he has ulterior motives that don't jive with his stated goals and might make look more like a common criminal than an idealistic freedom fighter. From the point of view of some, there may be romance in attempting to liberate the downtrodden of the Arab world; however, few find anything romantic in extortion.

Greg Palast has described the relationship between the Saudis and al Qaida as a protection racket. The Saudis pay off Osama so that he won't attack them. The fact that we've had a couple of attacks in Saudi Arabia this year may have as much to do with Osama's price going up as to any resentment against the invasion of Iraq.

Of course, Hamas has other priorities. Osama's obsession with extorting money from the Saudis means little to them and seems like a waste of time and resources.

So Hamas screams that Osama is murdering the wrong people.

[Darranar]

3. Al Qaeda, Osama included, has no love for the Saudi regime...

the destruction of it is a goal of theirs.

[Jack Rabbit]

4. It's a stated goal

It probably is on their priority list somewhere. However, for the moment, Osama is milking his Saudi cow.

There might be a possibility that Osama has decided now is the time to attack the Saudis, but I doubt it. He is probably more interested in gaining influence in the Iraqi resistance, now that Bush's invasion has opened the door for him there. Furthermore, that noise he made in Istanbul yesterday doesn't suggest that he's going to focus on overthrowing the House of Saud.

[Paschall]

5. You seem to know a lot about Osama

Tell me, how does he transmit all these orders from his refuge in US-allied Pakistan?

[Muddleoftheroad]

6. Probably the Internet

It's pretty huge. Can you imagine trying to look for code in every single e-mail, IM message and discussion thread?

[bemildred]

7. Dialup is a good guess.

With proper encryption, you can make the content of your email
etc. unreadable, and the software is free and easily available.
They had a big stink about it in the 90s and the snoops lost.

That said, I find the idea that OBL is pulling all the strings
ridiculous. If he is alive at all, he functions more like the
Queen of England than Joe Stalin.

[bluesoul]

8. He'll be probably blamed for every

terrorist attack even when he's long dead

[The Magistrate]

9. Courier, Mr. Paschall

This is not a particularly high-tech operation: sandal soles, and the human memory, quite suffice for the limited needs of the venture. There are two points to bear particularly in mind.

The first is that this is not a particularly hierarchal organization. It bears a great deal of simularity to the classical Anarchist bodies of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: a body of like-minded persons, who will react similarly to a situation, and so do not need a great deal of direction, only inspiration and occassionaly funds or technical assistance, in pursuit of wreaking "Propagandas of the Deed". The leader, the Grand Anarch, so to speak, provides the inspirational focal point, and makes broad decisions on strategy and finance, but does not give operational orders to the various affinity groups, which function according to well established traditional trade-crafts that are the common heritage of clandestine human organizations, whether state of private in character.

The second is that this fellow's position in Pakistan is in a region where the government has never exercised much power, and in which jihadist sentiments have long predominated among the population. The most likely quarter for his existence is in the upper Swat valley, at the extreme north of Pakistan, the narrow tongue between Afghanistan and Kashmir. This is the traditional heartland of pure jihadism in the region, since the days when it was aimed mostly at Sihks, and is the principal base of the militant operations in Kashnmir today, that benefitted so greatly by Al Queda assistance.

[bemildred]

10. A good point Sir.

Were we not reading just the other day about how Iraqi
intelligence, based on such methods, seemed to be rather good
during the war. It does seem likely that what direct communication
there is with OBL is done in this way, he has good reason to
know the risks of electronic methods, and little reason to need
them.

[Paschall]

11. Thank you

One wonders why you, with your insight, have not yet been engaged by the Pentagon to at last nullify the man's capacity to inflict harm, if he is indeed the Grand Anarch. It seems insight is not much in demand among the adepts at the Cathedral of the PenTangle. ;-)

And it is a bit frustrating that our "experts" are flailing at shadows in other far-flung points around the globe, with no end of the attendant violence in sight.

[The Magistrate]

12. These Things, Mr. Paschall

Are doubtless known to the persons who actually analyze intelligence: the demands of the political masters are something else again.

[bemildred]

13. Organizations rarely discover that they themselves are

inept, unnecessary, or too large.