The Modern Terrorist Threat – Beyond Criminal Justice
Posted By admin on November 23, 2008
Many argue that our nation is morally bankrupt and a disgrace because we don’t afford the normal criminal protections to suspected terrorists captured overseas.
They fail to appreciate the unprecedented nature and gravity of the threat of terrorism in the modern age, especially ideological or theological terrorism such as radical Islamist.
Here’s why this threat is so special:
- Al Qaeda is part of an international jihad, which has committed mass murder with the express intent of causing maximum damage to the United State.
- A fatwa was sought and issued, giving Al Qaeda the authority to kill millions of innocents to achieve their goals should provide additional concern.
- There are tens of thousands of nuclear weapons in the world, not all known to be accounted for, and that Al Qaeda is actively seeking them adds more ammunition.
- Unstable and rogue nations have sought (Iraq, Libya) and are actively progressing towards or possess (Iran, North Korea) nuclear weapons is ominous.More critically, all of those nations supported or directly engaged in terrorism. North Korean agents set off a bomb which almost killed the President of South Korea (a clear act of war). Iran has waged war against Israel via Hezbollah, and has frequently threatened the US. Iran has a leadership which may be religiously dedicated to causing a great holocaust in order to bring the 12th Imam. The (now defunct) regime of Iraq supported many terrorist organizations (not including Al Qaeda, although they had some links). We don’t know what other nations may have nuclear weapons – South Africa, during its transformation, gave up 8 nuclear weapons and a full biological weapons program.
- Al Qaeda has the knowledge to create an easily smuggled nuclear weapon, and is missing ONLY highly enriched uranium, is certainly a threat.
- The fact that epidemiologists and other experts have stated that some pathogens could devastate our society, killing a large percentage, should be weighed in conjunction with Al Qaeda’s intention to use biological weapons. We recently captured Al Qaeda’s biological weapons head, a highly trained PhD specialist in those fields. Knowledge is the primary factor needed by a large terrorist group in order to weaponize certain pathogens – the costs and equipment for genetic engineering is following a Moore’s law curve. A $50,000 facility (assuming one isn’t scrupulous about accidental releases of pathogens) and a budget of a few thousand per month for supplies is sufficient. Many nations, including Iraq and South Africa, once had active biological weapons programs and could have supplied untraceable pathogens to terrorists speaks for itself.
- If MI5 hadn’t stopped them, Al Qaeda would have simultaneously destroyed up to a dozen jumbo jets over heavily populated US cities in August, 2006 should give pause. The casualties would have been significantly greater than 9-11. Note that the architect of that attack was killed last week by US forces, acting in a foreign country (Pakistan) with whom we are not at war, and acting in a covert-action rather than military way (An armed Predator is an assassin’s weapon in this circumstance).
- The fact that Al Qaeda is only the most visible of the Islamist terrorist threat should give pause, as should their viral recruitment techniques of people in Western countries.
Add it all up and you have a very significant threat. Not existential, but far beyond any criminal threat. From the US perspective, it is important to note that 9-11 killed more Americans in our territory than any attack by foreigners the history of our nation!
The threat of the deaths of tens of thousands (one nuke) or tens of millions (one highly contagious weaponized pathogen) is dramatic. The threat to our civil liberties and way of life, and especially to those who might be suspected of carrying out or intending to carry out terrorist acts, is huge. For example, we would end up in a much more intrusive surveillance state than is already growing.
You just can’t say Islamic Terrorists cause you might hurt the feelings of some Muslim somewhere. However, the threat of a disaster as you have described is often disregarded as “rightwing fearmongering” by those same islamic terrorists. I hope the west truly wakes up to the thereat and gets much realistic in this war.