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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (186881)	4/23/2004 6:36:50 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 1576241

I evidenced my statement by the number of bombing incidents in the last two years. I consider that very poor evidence either way. It does show that they have enough strength left to make such attacks but it doesn't take a lot of strength to make such attacks. We could capture or kill 90% of Al-Qaeda and still face such attacks. What thousands? A few of their leaders have been killed. The thousands where mostly cannon fodder not trained and skilled terrorists or terrorist leaders. If you only going to count the later then its probably scores rather then thousands, at most hundreds. As far as I can tell, the only thing that's hindered is their training.......they had a training center in Afghanistan. The fact that they are cells insures their mobility. Its not just the ability to train, but in general having a secure home base where they can recruit, train, and relax in between missions without having to face enemy attack or possible arrest. I agree that denying them such a base is not enough but it is a vital step. Also some of there source of money have been stopped or decreased. There is very little evidence of that. We have frozen some accounts but the program to do that is flailing badly. We have not given them a decisive blow in this area, and I think that its unlikely we will, at least in the near future, but any progress is progress. If it makes them 1% weaker they are still weaker. Again, I take the number of incidents as evidence of al Qaeda's strength. I don't at least not on the level of the current attacks. If they were happening every few days or even weeks and they staid at that level for more then a short time then it would be sign that they have gained strength but it doesn't take many terrorist to make an attack the size of the one in Spain every now and then. There were few events after 9/11 but now there are al Qaeda related incidents about once every 3-4 months. After 9/11 # 2002 (Apr.): Explosion at historic synagogue in Tunisia leaves 21 dead, including 14 German tourists. # 2002 (May): Car explodes outside hotel in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 14, including 11 French citizens. # 2002 (June): Bomb explodes outside American Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 12. # 2002 (Oct.): Nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia, kill 202, mostly Australian citizens. # 2002 (Nov.): Suicide attack on a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, kills 16. # 2003 (May): Suicide bombers kill 34, including 8 Americans, at housing compounds for Westerners in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. # 2003 (May): Four bombs kill 24 people, targeting Jewish, Spanish, and Belgian sites in Casablanca, Morocco. More recent attacks - # 2003 (Aug.): Suicide car bomb kills 12, injures 150, at Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia. # 2003 (Nov.): Explosions rock a Riyadh, Saudi Arabia housing compound killing 17. # 2003 (Nov.): Suicide car bombers simultaneously attack two synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 25 and injuring hundreds. # 2004 (Mar.): Ten terrorists bombs exploded almost simultaneously during the morning rush hour in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 and injuring more than 1,800. It doesn't seem like there has been any great acceleration in the number of Al-Qaeda attacks. They think al Qaeda has become more decentralized and less dependent on OBL for direction and financing. I agree with that. It is more decentralized because the center has become weaker while not as much has happened to the edges. Tim