The greatest enigma of the US "war on terror": He was
an intelligence officer of the Egyptian army, a
CIA agent, a
drill seargent and instructor at Fort Bragg, an
FBI informant, and
Al Qaeda's number one man inside the US. He was directly or indirectly involved in
the assassination of Anwar Sadat,
the 1993 WTC bombing,
the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and
9/11. He
trained al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan and Sudan and wrote manuals on intelligence, terrorism and asymmetric warfare
while living in Silicon Valley with his American wife. He plea bargained, never went to trial, and
may be free or in witness protection today. Incidentally, he is
barely mentioned in
the 9/11 Commission report. Is there some sort of
conspiracy or are officials simply afraid of
having their gross negligence exposed?
posted by inoculatedcities
on Mar 5, 2007 -
26 comments
The New York Times Magazine (yes, I know the link disappears in a week or two, sorry) published a fascinating article about ,
"The Philosopher of Islamic Terror." An Egyptian born in 1906, he veered toward radical Islamic fundamentalism by the 1950's, but had much company in Egypt in this endeavor. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood, a precursor to Al Qaeda, and became the editor of their journal. Nasser imprisoned him and eventually executed him. In prison he wrote powerful works which described in his view a diversion in society between human nature and human reason, with human reason having so overwhelmed human nature as to lead to mankind's potential downfall.
The answer was a return to human nature through a ritualistic adherence to the teachings of God, as described by Muhammad. Rather than separate science and reason from religion, he sought to combine them as taught in the Koran, thus providing real freedom for mankind. For a liberal Episcopalian (me) these are difficult ideas, but they are nevertheless compelling not only to the poor and uneducated Muslims but more importantly to the intelligentsia. They explain the pain of modern existence, especially to those raised on the Koran. The author describes Qutb as the Islamist's Marx. Scary - religion and philosophy carry much greater power than Marx's mere economics and philosophy. Western media portray Islam as mostly a fringe group drawing power from economic poverty and the power imbalance between the West and most Muslim countries. This article shows that, at least at its heart, the movement draws upon a powerful philosophy which for many answers their agony of modern existence, regardless of their economic status.
posted by caddis
on Mar 23, 2003 -
10 comments
All Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology Why did Bin Laden's homies do what they did on September 11? Why did Lindh (as per the Steve Earle thread below) do what he did? Here is a cogent answer.
posted by kozad
on Aug 21, 2002 -
19 comments
Satan Doesn't Wear Sweaty Socks. Matthew Parris of The Times weighs in on the War on Terrorism, painting the U.S. as the 900-lb. gorilla of world affairs and offering the observation that maybe Al-Qaeda isn't as scary as the Bush and Blair administrations say it is.
posted by mr_crash_davis
on Jan 18, 2002 -
26 comments
After al-Qaeda? Since the "battle against terrorism will be fought worldwide", is it going to target, among others, the groups in Northern Ireland, ETA, Kach and Kahane Chai(!)? Also, it's notable there has been no mention of the long history of financing and arms for the IRA and such that emanates from the US.
posted by mmarcos
on Sep 29, 2001 -
10 comments
