On the assassination of Benazir Bhutto

Counterterrorism Blog:
Analysis of the Bhutto Assassination

Benazir Bhutto’s assassination is a tragedy, and likely a strategic setback as well. It is tragic because, despite the notorious corruption of Bhutto’s administration, in many ways she represented the best that Pakistan has to offer. Bhutto boldly opposed the fundamentalists’ dark vision for Pakistan and was openly pro-West. After the unsuccessful attempt on Bhutto’s life in October, she called out by name the figures whom she believed were complicit.

Jihad Watch:
Bhutto "champion of moderate face of Islam"?

Calling Benazir Bhutto a moderate Muslim is one manifestation of what's wrong with the term, and how confusing and misleading it can be. Benazir Bhutto was indeed a Muslim, at least nominally, but when she was in power in Pakistan what she championed was a Western secularist, socialist vision, not an Islamic one by any stretch of the imagination. She did not, in other words, offer an alternative vision of Islam itself, shorn of its draconian and supremacist elements. She didn't offer or stand for an alternative understanding of the Qur'an and Sunnah that taught that Muslims should not wage war for Islam, subjugate unbelievers, or institute stoning and amputation and the rest. Rather, she essentially advocated that in some areas Islamic law should be set aside. That, along with her gender, is what aroused the ire of the Islamic leaders in Pakistan against her, as it has against Musharraf.

Andrew McCarthy @ NRO:
Benazir Bhutto: Killed by the real Pakistan.

There is the Pakistan of our fantasy. The burgeoning democracy in whose vanguard are judges and lawyers and human rights activists using the “rule of law” as a cudgel to bring down a military junta. In the fantasy, Bhutto, an attractive, American-educated socialist whose prominent family made common cause with Soviets and whose tenures were rife with corruption, was somehow the second coming of James Madison.

Then there is the real Pakistan: an enemy of the United States and the West.

Ankara On High Alert As Mega-Terror Attack is Foiled

A citizen’s report to security authorities of a suspicious Mercedes Vito van parked in a multi-story car parking in the heart of the capital helped foil a mega terror attack in Turkey, on the anniversary of 9/11.

The car park, that is located in a busy district near school grounds, hospitals and many businesses was isolated, and all surrounding buildings were evacuated before the 700 lb. explosive was destroyed by security forces that employed every precaution.

The first evaluation by bomb experts was that this was a “mini atomic bomb”, of the same kind used in 2003 bombings of two synagogues, the British Consulate and a British Bank in Istanbul by Islamist Turks affiliated with Al Qaeda, that had killed over 60 people.

There is a massive search going on in Ankara to hunt down the three suspects that were recorded by the parking cameras as they were leaving the vehicle.

It is reported that authorities had been receiving warnings for a major terror attack in Turkey. High ranking military officials had in their recent speeches also warned about the possibility for such attacks in major Turkish cities.

Source: Hurriyet, Turkey, September 11, 2007

"9/11 and the Inconvenient Truths about Jihad and Islamism"

Six years after the 9/11 attacks, the key strategic issue regarding the global war has not yet been addressed by American leadership and the American people: a clear definition of the global enemy we are fighting and a clear definition of the ideology of the enemy. Extensive discussion has been held on terrorism, the nature of terrorism, tactical approaches to homeland security, tactics of terrorism and counterterrorism, and specific military campaign tactics. Significant progress has been made on such issues, but it is important to recognize that the progress has been in tactical operational areas, and that overarching strategy issues still need to be addressed.

But by ignoring the major strategic issues of fighting Jihad and addressing political Islamism, there are numerous convenient fictions contrary to our national security interests (e.g., denying Jihadist threats, misunderstanding Jihadist's ideological basis, monofocus on tactical and military debates) -- all of which ignore the uncomfortable, inconvenient truths and complexities about global Jihad and political Islamism. In effect, American policy and debate remains focused on tactical issues, without a clear agreement on the enemy, or the strategy to fight the enemy, in the world war.

Read it all at Counterterrorism Blog.

And yet American media still give CAIR officials airtime & ink

War is Deception

"Last week, we reported that an FBI agent identified Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) executive director Nihad Awad among those invited to a 1993 meeting of HAMAS members and supporters.

On Monday, jurors in the terror support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) were taken inside that 1993 meeting through transcripts obtained by the FBI. Federal agents were aware of the meeting and wired the Philadelphia hotel where it took place.

...

'War is deception,' defendant Shukri Abu Bakr said. Abu Bakr was the HLF president until the organization’s assets were frozen in 2001 for its alleged support for terrorism. 'Deceive, camouflage. Pretend that you’re leaving while you’re walking that way. Deceive your enemy.'

Also at the Philadelphia meeting, Omar Ahmad, a CAIR co-founder, who today serves as CAIR’s chairman emeritus, picked up on the theme, offering an analogy of a basketball player’s fake. 'He makes a player believe he is doing this while he is doing something else,' Ahmad said. 'I agree with you…like they say, politics is a completion of war.'

Read it all at Counterterrorism Blog."