Is al Qaeda self-destructing?
Finally, some good news to cheer the day (CNN):
A Saudi wing of al Qaeda called for attacks on U.S. oil sources across the world, saying targets should not be limited to the Middle East and listing Canada, Venezuela and Mexico as U.S. oil suppliers.
The threat appeared in the al Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula’s e-magazine, Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Holy War), which was posted on a Web site used by Islamist militants.
“It is necessary to hit oil interests in all regions which serve the United States not just in the Middle East. The goal is to cut its supplies or reduce them through any means,” it said.
Yes indeed, that’s a fine idea… er… or rather, it would be, if nearly every economy on the planet didn’t depend on oil sources one way or another. I don’t see very many folks continuing to stand on the sidelines if this brainchild of some fervent banshee takes root.
That’s the second time in two days an element of al Qaeda has come out with an idea that can only backfire on them. Is this loosely-connected organization finally starting to self-destruct?
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9 Responses to “Is al Qaeda self-destructing?”
Who are you talking about? Doesn’t most of the world support rooting our Al-Qaeda type terrorists?
How does this idea backfire on them? They want to cause “terror” and instability as leverage for achieving political and religious goals. The #1 goal is to chase the inifidels from the holy lands. I don’t see how hurting the world economy really has an effect on that goal. Most of these terrorist types, outside of the rich leaders like Bin Laden, are already in dire straights economically, so they won’t care.
Chris,
I’d say think of a bigger picture. For instance, China has been content to sit on the sidelines while we’ve been rooting around in the ME. Among many reasons, primary is that they don’t really have a dog in the fight. However, if al Qaida’s people start destroying oil fields around the world in an attempt to pressure US…Well, China’s economy relies on accessible oil just as much as ours does. They aren’t going to like it if oil prices start skyrocketing – it would grind their economy as much (if not more) than ours. I’d say the chances of China contributing more meaningfully to a war against al Qaida go up considerably at that point.
China is only 1 nation – just about every developed and developing nation relies on oil. al Qaida will be making more enemies than friends with a policy like this, IMHO.
Yes — it’s the bigger picture that changes shape in such a scenario.
Beyond what jweidner said above — Al Qaeda enjoys modest support (even if only emotional) by people in some areas of the world, but that would dry up very quickly if this call is answered.
There are less-pleasant possible outcomes, though, to this mad proposal re: Venezuela. Off the top of my head, I’d guess that Venezuela might potentially react by tightening up its bonds to Iran, who’d have major issues with this also, on both economic and religious grounds.
In combination with the call to unite under the Taliban, and it looks to me as if al Qaeda is unravelling at a pretty good clip, leadership-wise.
cynical interpretation: Hitting oil fields in Venezuela and Canada makes the oil in ME fields more valuable, increasing the spare cash of al-qaeda friendly parties.
“Yes indeed, that’s a fine idea… er… or rather, it would be, if nearly every economy on the planet didn’t depend on oil sources one way or another.”
That’s what makes this plan so attractive to Al Quaeda. They would love everybody to live in a medieval society. All this technology is evil. By ruining the oil industry all around the globe, they might reach this goal.
Al Qaeda is not self-destructing. They are just getting bolder.
The Intelligence agencies see worrying signs of al-Qaeda’s revival.
If you want to see self-destruction, just wait for Bush to attack Iran. It’s gonna be tough to recover from Iraq, it will take decades to recover from Iraq and Iran.
…if this is the case we’ll need *YIKES!!!* russia and china’s help *DOUBLE YIKES!!!* in this NOT happening. i’m saying, though.
…AND ANOTHER REASON WE NEED TO BECOME ENERGY INDEPENDENT, BTW…
To me this is not a new sign that they are self-destructing- their entire organization is based on a self-destructive style terrorism-this is just broadening their tactics. Anyone who sponsors suicide bombers to destroy innocent lives, would not be interested in doing the politically correct thing. Their strategy is to disrupt and destroy Western civilization, any way they can. I don’t think they care about the consequences or winning over converts.