Hi Maurice, Japanese terrorist discovered ...
stratfor.com
Discovery of Non-Arab Militants Means Trouble for Security Efforts
30 July 2002
Russian media reports say that a Japanese militant is part of a group of around 100 Muslim fighters who crossed from Georgia into the breakaway republic of Chechnya July 29. Two militants captured by Russian forces said there were several mercenaries in the group, including a Japanese convert to Islam who was trained by instructors of Chechen warlord Ruslan Gelayev, ITAR-Tass and the Kommersant daily reported.
Although the existence of the Japanese militant is unconfirmed, it potentially could further complicate counterterrorism operations around the world. As the number of alleged al Qaeda operatives and other Muslim militants coming from places other than the Middle East or South Asia rises, a key tool used to identify potential terrorists -- racial profiling -- may become even less effective.
Russia has long argued that Chechen separatist fighters are linked to al Qaeda, and the presence of a Japanese man among their ranks suggests there is a broader ethnic mix from which al Qaeda or related militant groups can recruit. From China's ethnic Uighurs to American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh to a British national on trial in Dagestan for alleged terrorism, Muslim militants are not limited to Arabs or South Asians. The arrest in June of Jose Padilla, a Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican accused of planning to set off a so-called "dirty bomb" in the United States, only underscored this reality.
Interestingly, some Japanese militant organizations have a long history of ties to Islamic militants. The Japanese Red Army, a leftist group responsible for the 1972 attack on Tel Aviv's Lod airport as well as several airline hijackings and attacks on foreign embassies, worked closely with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Although the Japanese Red Army disbanded in 2001 on the 30th anniversary of the Lod attack, the precedent for such cooperation still remains.
But of more importance is the idea that the Chechens or al Qaeda, rather than working with existing militant groups that may be monitered, can recruit individuals to their cause regardless of ethnicity or background. This was obviously the case with Padilla and Lindh and is likely the case with the alleged Japanese Chechen.
For counterterrorism coordinators around the world, the possibility that anyone could be an al Qaeda operative makes their jobs only that much more difficult. While security agencies have always been aware of this, the discovery of more non-Arab militants renders racial profiling and other visual-detection methods potentially less reliable. |
