How can I win the war on “Terrorism”? Part two; (Jan. 28, 2010)
I set the fundamentals in part one. This part dwells on details. Ilyass Kashmiri is presumably the Pakistani leader of the Islamic Kashmir independence movement (from the Indian Kashmir region). Ilyass’s movement is called Lashkar Al Zil (army of the shadow). In Arabic, Zil means shade and Zol means indignity; thus, it depends how the word is understood or pronounced in that part of Pakistan. Lashkar Al Zil was known as Brigade 055 (was it initially a brigade of the Pakistani army?) Lashkar Al Zil has vast networks for intelligence gathering. It is understood that currently most of the radical Sunni Islamic movements, including Al Qaeda, are taking umbrage under Lashkar Al Zil and not the way around since it has established popular bases in many self-autonomous districts in north Pakistan.
Ilyass Kashmiri may be orchestrating most of the suicidal operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan; his movement has extended its influence in Yemen and Somalia (Al Chabab). Saleh Al Somali was killed by a drone in Pakistan in 2008. David Coleman Headly was arrested in Chicago for preparing the aggression on the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten; he participated in the Bombay massacre of November 2008 and Ilyass was one of Headly’s contacts.
Another Al Qaeda leader working with Ilyass is Yahya Al Libi. Yahya Al Libi is from Libya and his pragmatic goal is to overthrow the Kadhafi regime. In the mean time, Yahya Al Libi is taking the strategy of antagonizing the Islamic Shiaa sect movements (the Shiaa are mostly concentrated in Iran, Iraq, and India); the bombing of the mosque in Ramadi (Iraq) is of his doing (23 dead); the bombing of the Shiaa mosque in Karachi (Pakistan) resulted in 30 dead victims. Al Libi has a different strategy than Zawahiri (Egyptian and second in command in Al Qaeda) who wants to unite the forces of all Islamic forces.
Ilyass and Yahaya want the Western forces to intervene militarily so that they can infiltrate the Islamic masses at no cost to them. Currently, their first target is the Pakistani army that finally got carried away with the US pressures to attack the fundamentalists. The Pakistani government is realizing that the gamble was premature: the Pakistani army is suffering from this unpopular civil war and losing its status as the backbone for Pakistan unity among the various ethnic diversity groups.
The Lashkar Al Zil and its Afghanistan allies are preparing a counter offensive as snow melts against the Pakistani army in the districts of Khyber, Kurram, Hungu, and Orakzai (in Pakistan) and in the valley of Tera (facing the Afghan mountain chains of Tora Bora). Saudi Arabia is heavily involved in Yemen because this Wahhabi monarchy is conscious that the vise of the fundamentalist movements is closing on from all directions (Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, and eventually Egypt). Saudi Arabia has extended $two billion to the Yemenite government and moved its army and air force in operations in Yemen.
Some people believe that the USA is indeed fomenting these Islamic movements in order to have excuses for militarily accesses in Yemen and Somalia, in addition to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Arab Gulf mini-States. People believe that the US wants to secure Africa and the oil shipments in the Middle East. People have reached this implicit feeling of US definite conspiracy from past evidences and because the US is the only superpower to dominate all the seas and oceans by its naval forces. Actually, the US drones have been bombing targets in the sub-Sahara States of Africa (Mauritania, Chad, and Niger) for sometimes.
During the Bush Junior Administration, the CIA was extended the mission to develop its paramilitary branch (Special Activities Division SAD) in order to carry out vast secret operations. The former “private security service” company of Blackwater (re-named Xe) was and is sub-contracting a few of these CIA secret operations. Currently, the US government is pressuring Congress to drop all judiciary cases leveled against Blackwater operators.
The CIA was recently exposed by the suicide bombing of Humam Al Balawi in its Khost (Afghanistan) advanced post that killed 7 CIA agents and 6 other soldiers in December 2009. The Jordanian secret agent, Humam Al Balawi, was lent by Jordan to the CIA to facilitate intelligence gathering on extremist Sunni movements in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The CIA installed a series of support bases in South and East of Afghanistan to gather intelligence for drone attacks on particular “targets” of extremist leaders. The US military has boasted of killing over one hundred targets; most of the victims were civilians in “collateral damages”. The increased number of civilian casualties prompted the Pakistani government to get involved in the rules of engagement and drone operations.
The Afghan army is heavily infiltrated by Taliban elements: last week, the Capital Kabul awoke to a nightmare: it was rocked by 5 attacks on 5 government institutions, including the Presidential Palace of Karzai.
What is happening in the region are series of civil wars; the factions are mainly borrowing the discourse of Al Qaeda but this movement is plainly limited to fringe countries in Africa. Nevertheless, US Medias refuse to change the decades catch all term of Al Qaeda to means civil unrest and “terrorism” in Islamic states: they prefer disinformation instead of educating the public to the new realities. Is it simply because it is too “complex” for the little mind of the public to comprehend?
So far, the US has heavily fallen in the trap of disseminating the image of fighting Islam instead of targeting “terrorist” bases. More military involvement is bound to stick this image in the mind and heart of moderate Islamists who will be pressured to extend leniency attitudes to the extremist elements and factions.
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