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Terror Attacks -lots of small events not singular large attacks

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
The night that the Twin Towers in NYC, the Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania all had terrorist plane crashes my daughter's soccer team had a practice session. It was decided to have the team practice as usual in an effort to keep things 'as normal as possible' for the kids.

My wife and I were 'assistant' coaches for the team and during a break we were talking with the coach about things. I suggested that night that we were in one of the safest places because, being in a tiny town in Indiana we were not a target. I also suggested that if the terrorists really wanted to scare the living devil out of the average American all they had to do was show up at Sunday church service in any small town in America and blow it up because there is no way to protect every church in every town.

Well now it may be that Al Quaida may be planning to make a lot of small attacks in what were once considered safe towns that nobody would have considered as targets. If you didn't think it was a good idea to carry a gun in the past, it may be that carrying one in the future saves your town.

New Al Qaeda Manual Reflects Changing Face of Terror
Thursday, August 14, 2008
By Shannon Bream
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,403902,00.html


WASHINGTON — A newly discovered online Al Qaeda manual is giving intelligence officials new insight into how the group's leaders are training recruits to further move the organization from a centralized operation toward smaller global cells.

The manual, called “Method for Building the Personality of a Terrorist Mujahid” and written by an Islamist forum contributor nicknamed "Shamil al-Baghdadi," encourages militant followers to stop focusing on pulling off attacks on the scale of 9-11 and to start executing numerous smaller attacks. It states that if for some reason the mission fails, the Jihadi must not abort, but instead carry on alone — as a one-man cell.

According to New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, it's a strategy of which domestic law enforcement agencies are well aware. "If you can't do the big attacks, do the small attacks. Do smaller attacks and more of them," Kelly said. The new manual, which allegedly surfaced on an Islamic Web forum sometime in March, outlines a number of lessons, from how to form a terror cell to fundraising efforts.

It advocates assassinations by shooting, poisoning and booby-trapping cell phones and computers. The manual prioritizes targets by ranking and lists categories such as "high profile," which represent presidents and prime ministers.

Targeted organizations have a similar ranking, in which state sponsored groups are listed as “high-potential” organizations. Recruits are also told to organize credit card scams and to rob police stations in order to get weapons. Most shocking are the lessons on kidnapping, with orders to slaughter hostages in a way that will terrify the public.

"I propose you start with those that have blood on their hands torturing and suppressing Muslims like high-ranking intelligence officers, the governor or any foreign official," writes al-Baghdadi.

Cell members are also persuaded to carry out attacks on cultural and business centers, taking warfare to the streets. As Al Qaeda cells become localized and more autonomous, terror experts say the techniques outlined in the manual illustrate of changing the face of the organization itself.

Dr. Matthew Levitt, director of The Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, said the structure has shifted. "You know, it used to be that the face of Al Qaeda was bin Laden and the core. That is still the case, but now we are reminded about Al Qaeda on a regular basis more because of the activities of the local cells."

Levitt said the manual is specifically tailored to its audience. "What this does more than anything else is provides people who are inclined to carry out such attacks with the sense that they now have some information and pushes them to actually go through with it," said Levitt.

Kelly acknowledges that despite thousands of cameras and officers blanketing the streets, no American city is impervious to street level attacks. "We have vulnerabilities, absolutely. In an open society you're going to have vulnerabilities," Kelly added. In an effort to close every gap, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies across the country are increasingly sharing their intelligence data.

But terror experts realize that there is no room for error.

"It's kind of like being a soccer goalie. You can stop 99 shots on goal, but that one goal gets through and you lose, one-to-nothing. That's all people remember. A 99 percent success rate is still failure in this industry, and I think we need to be cognizant of that," said Levitt.​
 

rback33

Hangin in Tornado Alley
SUPER Site Supporter
Interesting and timely post. Just yesterday I was researching the cost the wifey and I would incur to get our CC permits. Honestly, the more I read... the more I think I would carry more than I initially thought.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Im a little shocked they havent done something else yet.

I'm also a bit surprised they haven't done something on a small scale. Its my understanding that a couple big things were thwarted. Our own idiots intent upon murder figured out that schools, colleges, churches and shopping malls are good places to attack innocent people. I'm actually shocked that it is taking Al Qaeda this long to get the message out that real terror in America may be best found in the heartland in unexpected little places like town halls and community centers.
 

mak2

Active member
small scale terror attacks are just the opposite of what terror is about. How many more people have been killed over drugs in major American cities since 9/11 than by terrorist ever in America. In fact I think drugs are a bigger threat than crazy arabs with bombs.
I did not really think this out, but just off the cuff I really do think drugs are more of a threat to the US than Islam extremist. Just something to think about.
 

California

Charter Member
Site Supporter
...shocked that it is taking Al Qaeda this long to get the message out that real terror in America may be best found in the heartland in unexpected little places
Well a little tongue in cheek - they know that killing in a church would just start another round of "liberals will confiscate our guns!!! :D

But realistically, I think strategy is also driven by grandstanding for their own, which leads to choosing internationally recognised targets.

Those doctors who went amok in Britain and bombed the Underground (subway) were well-integrated and understood British culture. They knew that the Brits would take that as a blow to the gut. I think that was an attack on a sense of 'safe in our homes' that you are commenting on.
 

California

Charter Member
Site Supporter
I did not really think this out, but just off the cuff I really do think drugs are more of a threat to the US than Islam extremist.
Pet peeve of mine too. I think the little wannabe gangsters are more disruptive to a community of poor but decent people than anything they are likely to suffer from conservative Muslims.

Even the graffiti taggers tear down a community's sense of safety, that 'nothing bad can ever happen here', and make people feel helpless to resist.

I wonder if Homeland Security will ever prioritize threats, as viewed from the community level.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I totally agree with you guys that the WAR ON DRUGS is costing way more than it is worth and tearing up the inner cities. But I don't think it has yet terrorized 'white' America or spread any fear in the heartland . . . or for that matter even into suburbia or into the nice neighborhoods of the cities. It is confined into the pockets of hell in the inner cities.

Now if the terrorists decided to bomb/shoot up the Indiana High School Basketball quarterly finals . . . and then the Minnesota High School Hockey Championships . . . and the Ohio High School Football Regionals . . . then I think middle America would be quaking in its boots. Toss in a few churches, maybe disrupt the voting in Peoria or Kansas City, that would scare the hell out of us.
 
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