BIG TIME
At the moment it appears that the Al Qaeda may have decided it is time to extend their terrorist attacks into new areas.
Either they have decided to go “big time” by hitting targets other than those specifically associated with the United States such as the attack on a French oiler last week off Yemen harbor, the series of bombings in Bali, in addition to the attack on U.S. Marines in Kuwait indicate two possibilities, either they have decided a show of power around the world is needed, or that they have lost control of individual and domesticated cell activities around the world which now act on their own.
This may well be a welcome crack forming in the basic structure of the Al Qaeda which will be well worth watching.
It is easy to see how zero in on one nation - such as the United States – might tend to isolate that nation and cause other state to hesitate to assist with any plans to change the course of events. This would seem to be a very poor time to alienate French, the Kuwaiti Emirs and the other nations; and, perhaps most of all, to launch terrorist attacks in the world's Muslim nation – Indonesia. To set off a series of blasts in a resort town at Bali would seem to be counter productive even though intended to kill or maim Australian and American tourists vacationing on the island.
Right now would seem to be the worst item to schedule such attacks .The UN is, even now, debating which side they will support and such acts against other than the United States are sure to drive other nations in to an alliance of some sort led by the United States.
Finland is labeling the recent deadly bombing in a crowded shopping center as a “terrorist” attack. A student is being held as a suspect but his identify and culural background has not been rev ales. The initial impulse, however, was to call it a “terrorist” attack.
The terms “terrorist” and “terrorism” now equate in the public mind-set with the benign work of Bin Laden and his cohorts, the Al Qaeda family or of random zealots expounding such ideas.
And, with the sniper killings continuing here in northern Virginia and the edge of Maryland touching on the District of Columbia, more and more people, in addition to those who already say so, are going to be thinking of them as Al Qaeda managed crimes against us ...a part of the larger picture.
Has the terrorist movement gone “big time”? Has it shifted to smaller, more specialized targeting in more places?
A.L.M. October 12, 2002 [c451wds ]
