Articles Index Truth And Consequences
With continuing back and forth over the administration’s accounts of bin Laden’s execution, are we losing sight of the bigger picture in relation to the threat of terrorism?
Talk about conspiracy theories. We have all heard the varying and changing accounts of the death of Bin Laden and undoubtedly this will continue for weeks and months and even years to come.
There is an old, wise Yiddish Proverb that says “What you don't see with your eyes, don't invent with your mouth”. Our current administration should consider this before any of them speak.
Throughout Israel’s history each and every time any incident occurred where Israel was suspect, Israeli officials always say the same thing. Whether or not Israel had the slightest involvement the answer is always the same. “No comment”.
Vice President Joe Biden started this whole mess and now it is never ending. Last Sunday, President Barack Obama announced that “a small team of Americans” had killed Osama bin Laden. It was a short and vague description and that is where it should have ended.
But then at a dinner at Washington’s Ritz Carlton Hotel marking the 50th anniversary of the Atlantic Council, Biden stated,
“Let me briefly acknowledge tonight’s distinguished honorees. Admiral James Stavridis is a, is the real deal. He can tell you more about and understands the incredible, the phenomenal, the just almost unbelievable capacity of his Navy SEALs and what they did last Sunday.”
He also stated,
“Folks, I’d be remiss also if I didn’t say an extra word about the incredible events, extraordinary events of this past Sunday. As Vice President of the United States, as an American, I was in absolute awe of the capacity and dedication of the entire team, both the intelligence community, the CIA, the SEALs. It just was extraordinary.”
Certainly we all want to know what really happened and how, we would love to see pictures or better yet, a video from start to finish. We would love to talk to and interview the men that were there, but there is a reason that they call it classified.
My concern is of a different problem. While everyone is playing armchair quarter back and guessing this, that and the other, and all of the media is scrambling to uncover what they can about this operation, are we missing perhaps greater and bigger issues?
It seems whenever a story such as this arises, our media loses sight of everything else. I know this is a big story; it will end up being one of the biggest since the assassination of Kennedy, but let’s not lose sight of the big picture.
Al-Qaeda will have a successor; it may be Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's deputy commander. It could be Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S. born cleric who is the mastermind behind several terror atrocities and the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The point is the war on terror (the one our administration says doesn’t exist) and that of al-Qaeda is far from over just because Bin Laden is dead. In all likelihood it will get worse before it gets better.
Interestingly, last year on May 26, John Brennan, the chief counterterrorism advisor to the President, explained that our enemy is not terrorism. He made this statement at the CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) in which he announced that President Obama would be releasing his National Security Strategy the next day.
“The President’s strategy is absolutely clear about the threat we face. Our enemy is not ‘terrorism’ because terrorism is but a tactic. Our enemy is not ‘terror’ because terror is a state of mind and as Americans we refuse to live in fear. Nor do we describe our enemy as ‘jihadists’ or ‘Islamists’ because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one’s community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and children.”
However, just a day after the Bin Laden raid John Brennan stated at a press conference,
“I think the accomplishment that very brave personnel from the United States government were able to realize yesterday is a de?ning moment in the war against al Qaeda, the war on terrorism, by decapitating the head of the snake known as al Qaeda.”
Hmmm. So which is it Mr. Brennan? Are we or are we not at war with terror? But I digress.
May 4, just 3 days after the death of Bin Laden a story broke out of San Diego. Local ABC affiliate channel 10 news broke the story with the following headline, “Terrorist Group Setting Up Operations Near Border, Hezbollah Considered To Be More Advanced Than Al-Qaida”.
According to the article and video," a former U.S. intelligence agent told 10News,
"We are looking at 15 or 20 years that Hezbollah has been setting up shop in Mexico”.
The article explained,
Now, the group is blending into Shi'a Muslim communities in Mexico, including Tijuana. Other pockets along the U.S.-Mexico border region remain largely unidentified as U.S. intelligence agencies are focused on the drug trade.
The former agent continued,
"They are recognized by many experts as the 'A' team of Muslim terrorist organizations.”
"Their operators are far more skilled … they are the equals of Russians, Chinese or Cubans," he said. "I consider Hezbollah much more dangerous in that sense because of strategic thinking; they think more long-term."
He tracked, along with Mexican intelligence, two Hezbollah operatives in safe houses in Tijuana and Durango,
"I confirmed the participation of cartel members as well as other Hezbollah individuals living and operating out of there," he said.
Was this on any national network? Was it seen on any other channel? Why was this not the headline on every major network? Because we have taken our eye off the ball and were too busy trying to over analyze everything about the Bin Laden raid.
I have written and lectured on Hezbollah at length. According to the United States Council on Foreign Relations, they are responsible for five major terrorist attacks against the U.S. and Israel, including the 1983 suicide truck bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, Lebanon in which 241 U.S. servicemen were murdered.
Hezbollah was the first group to use suicide bombing. They are also one of the first terror groups to utilize assassination, and capturing as tactics against foreign soldiers in the Middle East.
Back in 2008, Ynet news reported on the internal Homeland Security Threat Assessment for the years 2008-2013,
Homeland Security Threat Assessment for the years 2008-2013 says Hezbollah may foment terror attack in US if there is some kind of 'triggering' event. 'The threat of terrorism and the threat of extremist ideologies have not abated," Chertoff says.
The article went on quoting the report,
Terrorists will continue to try to evade US border security measures and place operatives inside the mainland to carry out attacks, the 38-page assessment said. It also said that they may pose as refugees or asylum seekers or try to exploit foreign travel channels such as the visa waiver program, which allows citizens of 34 countries to enter the US without visas.
Or perhaps they will just come across our southern border like the hundreds of thousands of others have?
On December 15 of last year a Kuwaiti professor made a video in which he was excited to share these thoughts,
“Four pounds of anthrax – in a suitcase this big – carried by a fighter through tunnels from Mexico into the US are guaranteed to kill 330,000 Americans within a single hour, if it is properly spread in population centers there. What a horrifying idea! 9/11 will be small change in comparison. Am I right? There is no need for airplanes, conspiracies, timings, and so on. One person, with the courage to carry four pounds of anthrax will go to the White House lawn and will spread this “confetti” all over them, and then will do these cries of joy. It will turn into a real celebration.”
He also explained the following,
“Al-Qaeda has laboratories just like Hezbollah. Hezbollah has laboratories in South Lebanon in which it produces weapons and sells them. Hezbollah has laboratories in South Lebanon from which it sells weapons to Romania and Hungary.”
Maybe we ought to be more concerned with those that are still alive and planning our death rather than examining the death of another.
Spot on...and we've been saying this for a week now...just because UBL is physically removed from the picture, does not mean we can relax and celebrate freedom from terrorism...it's not over by a long shot. Like him, love him, hate him whatever, GWB knew that terrorists were more than just Al-Qaeda, hence his statement, "Any government that supports, protects or harbours terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes." He recognized that terrorists are not just of one entity, and that it has multiple facades. NO, Brennan, the killing of UBL isn't like decapitating the snake, it's like slicing one had off of they Hydra, which will only reproduce twice as many heads. How ignorant, foolish, and dangerous that our chief counter-terrorism adviser is putting out the impression that all will be hunky-dory from here on out.
*sigh...Thank you Gadi, and yet again, folks look around you, it's far from over...and as pointed out in the article and on America Akbar, it IS happening here in America.