September 23, 2001

7:19 AM

From many voices, onevapproachvia NY Times (reg req'd). Facts now coming out indcate that there are many cells, worldwide, that have been set in place over the years and are (or were) to be activated in a continupous terror assault. What our leaders are saying, then, about the length of time requried may in fact be in recognition of the huge job ahead in rooting these cells out.
posted by Postroad (5 comments total)

Well, as long as they're not stem cells....
posted by rushmc at 7:40 AM on September 23, 2001

When they are stars in a TV mini-series they'll be cell outs
posted by geoff. at 8:42 AM on September 23, 2001

Not surprising.

I think we are moving past putting every news flash on the main page, but DEBKAfile has been mentioned here before and the rumors there are interesting if you are following events. A biased source but they make a lot of firm statements - eventually we will be able to evaluate how accurate they are.
posted by username at 8:56 AM on September 23, 2001

Isn't this exactly the same article linked here. If not, it's nearly identical.
posted by pascal at 11:29 AM on September 23, 2001

kinda like distributed file sharing or computing, once it's out in the wild, it's hard to contain (imagine a beowulf cluster :)

but yeah, i think it's going to be tough going after a distributed network that operates on the cheap. it's gonna require system wide efforts sorta like the CDC uses to rein in epidemics. coordinated efforts across many countries on multiple levels of diplomacy (not pissing off allies too much and accommodating major regional powers -- india, russia, china), finance (investigating money-laundering -- cross border and domestic), development aid (humanitarian and financial -- oxfam, grameen bank? -- hopefully not through the WB/IMF and not in support of unpopular corrupt gov'ts), and of course military options (special ops, humint -- use of weapons?).

SE asia and LA have come a long way since the US toned it down there. let's not let central asia become a sinkhole. and africa... and also remember that sometimes it's best not to interfere. how do you destroy ideology? like the new yorker article posted by BFT below hinted, it might be as easy as being reminded that we're all human.
posted by kliuless at 3:45 PM on September 23, 2001